A Quote from Henry Blackaby . . .

Hello! I have been reading through a book by Henry Blackaby (the author of Experiencing God) called Created to be God's Friend. It is about the life of Abraham and how God built him in to His friend (James says that Abraham was a friend of God---is that an awesome statement or what?!?). Blackaby talks about the part in Genesis 18 when God asks if He should tell Abraham what He is about to do (to Sodom and the region) and then decides to share His heart and plans with Abraham.

Blackaby says this: It is a moment of trembling to realize the Heart of God, but this comes to the one who chooses to let God draw him closer to Himself. Often this will occur in one, while others around him do not know anything at all about the seriousness of the moment with God. But God desires such a relationship, where He can share His heart. This is the “friend” He is looking for. This is the kind of relationship He is shaping in the one He calls. This one will see farther, see clearer, and see more than others around him. This, too, will often separate him from those around him, especially because of the intensity with God this revelation creates. It is sometimes lonely being a “friend of God”!

I found this paragraph really spoke to, and stirred, my heart. I want to be a friend to God. I want to be one whom doesn't just tell Him my heart, but who is available to hear His. One who listens and doesn't just talk. One He can trust with His heart. One who will take seriously the things that make Him rejoice, and the things that cause Him sadness. I know that is sometimes lonely---I imagine at times Moses and Noah and Peter and Paul felt very alone among men---but I want to be willing to trade all of the friendship of man for the friendship of God if it was required. I don't want to be this for more of His praise or to earn anything from Him---I am so, so glad that He loves me just as I am, and that He has such grace for me just as I am---but I want to do this because being a friend of God seems to me to be one of the most amazing things a man (or woman or child) could be . . . and it would mean that I had come to the point where what He had to say to me and share with me had become as important to me as what I want to say to and share with Him. I can say it is, but if I don't position myself to receive it and to be faithful in its trust then it doesn't mean much to me to say it.