God is NOT your Friend.
At least, not the way you think.
One very common trend among many people nowadays, believers included, is that we’ve almost, in our minds, “divided” God into two and selected the part of Him that we like.
We take God and try to separate:
His Good and Kind and Loving and Merciful nature
from
His Holy and Jealous and “Sin-hating” and Vengeful nature.
So, we now give focus to the “aspects” of God that make us happy, and we avoid every mention of his “sides” that don’t.
It’s almost like we’re trying to “dilute” God from the awe-inducing Supreme Being that He is into a nice, friendly, “need-meeting” God that we can just treat however we please.
Let’s be clear on something: God is God.
He is not one of your “friends”.
He’s not just some “guy” that you relate to anyhow.
Yes, he’s given us full access to his beautiful nature and made us His children, but not as a license for us to disrespect him.
The Bible describes God as “…majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders…”
Does that sound like any of your friends?
I didn’t think so.
Think about it like this:
Imagine you were best friends with a king. He likes you so much that he gives you a free pass to see him whenever you like and also gives you everything you ask him for.
Does this privilege change the fact that he’s a king?
Does it change the fact that he holds the ultimate power over everyone in his kingdom, including you?
No.
In fact, being friends with that king will make you even more careful.
There are certain things and associations you’ll avoid, simply because of your relationship with that king.
You won’t want to do anything that abuses the access he’s given you.
That’s, ideally, how it should be with God, but we don’t act that way.
We love scriptures like “Ask and ye shall receive.”
But we avoid scriptures that convict our spirits and candidly call out our errors.
Scriptures like, “Let he that nameth the name of the Lord depart from sin,” or “The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
We don’t like scriptures that reflect the true reality of the life we’re living back to us.
I think the biggest problem of Christians today is that we love comfort too much.
And, unfortunately for us, a life of true dedication to God is often not “comfortable.”
At least, not the way we think or want it to be.
It involves denying ourselves the many, many things that we want to do.
It’s not something we can “aestheticise.”
People used to get beheaded openly in the streets for this same faith, back when there was little to no room for compromise.
Today, the “persecution” levels have dropped a little bit, and as much as that might be a good thing.
Something else has taken its place.
I mentioned that thing above: Compromise.
We’ve allowed way too much of it into our lives and into our homes and into our churches.
We’re barely standing on the core principles of the message we claim to believe in, and it’s killing us, whether we’re aware of it or not.
We lift up Holy hands in worship, but we also party wild in the clubs all night.
You hold on dearly to the tag of a “virtuous woman” while also actively expressing signs of and claiming to be a “bad bitch.”
You want to be called a “mighty man of valour,” yet you allow your guys to pressure you into doing any and every possible vice.
I’m not criticising anybody, or saying this or that is “bad”.
I’m just painting a picture.
Many Christians don’t even pay their tithes, and they will give every justifiable reason for this.
Forgetting that not paying tithes is the one time that God says we’re “robbing” him.
Do you know what happens to people who steal from kings?
Once again- not condemning anybody.
Who am I to judge?
I’m merely painting a picture.
I know these things are tough to hear.
It’s not easy to write either.
But oftentimes, the truth that we need to know, the truth that will save us, is the one that makes us the most uncomfortable.
None of this is meant to decry the kind and loving nature of God, by the way.
He is all of those things and more.
He’s more gracious and merciful than we could ever imagine.
If you think you even understand the tiniest bit of the depths of his love, then you’re kidding yourself.
You honestly don’t.
But see, this “compassionate” God is not different from the “consuming fire” God.
It’s not even two sides of his personality.
Both natures exist in themselves as ONE.
You can’t or should not try to separate them and focus on the part that feels “good” to you.
You can’t want part of his nature and not want the rest.
I don’t think it works that way.
The same God that “supplies all our needs according to His riches in glory” is the same God that also “has the power to burn your soul in hell.”
He’s not bipolar.
He’s not “good” today and “bad” tomorrow.
No.
He’s the same.
Same God. Same Nature. Same Person.
(By the way, I heard some “Christians” don’t believe that Hell really exists. There’s countless testimonies to the existence of that terrible place; I just pray you and I never go there. Amen.)
Just to backtrack again, in case I’m sounding overly critical.
Not writing this to condemn.
We all have our struggles.
I like to think that God left so many things “wrong” with us as humans and made Himself the only solution to these things so that we’ll have no choice but to depend on Him for help.
And he’s a very dependable help, always “present in times of trouble.”
It’s unfortunate that people will rely on every other thing but Him to “fix” them and their troubles.
But while God is here for us, his nature is not meant to serve us.
We are the ones created for His pleasure.
Not the other way around.
He doesn’t exist to make us happy.
We exist to do His will.
But it’s not a “slave to master” type of relationship.
It’s a “Father to child” one.
And no matter how much a father loves his child, he will forever be ready to smack the child with a rod back into alignment whenever he/she errs.
Fortunately for us, God is very, very slow to “smack” us.
He doesn’t even chastise us as much as we deserve.
His mercy is “new every morning,” and I like to imagine it as an ocean that just keeps expanding and expanding as the years go by.
Maybe that’s why we’re so lackadaisical in our attitude towards him.
I pray God continues to help us.
Because we can’t do anything unless he does.
When you love someone.
You prove it by your actions.
You accept the entirety of them, the way they are.
The same should go with our God.
We must love him wholeheartedly.
If we want His peace, we must accept His purity.
If we want His love, we must show Him loyalty.
If we want His power, we must give Him priority.
There are no two ways about it.
The best part of all this?
We can always ask Him to help us to love Him more.
And no matter how much we “love” him, He has, He does, and he will forever love us x100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 more.
I hope these words convict your spirit as much as they do mine.
Peace.
By the way, don’t let the Devil lie to you.
You could NEVER have done anything to deserve the grace of God that he has given to you, so nothing you do (or don’t do) can ever separate you from that grace.
You can always go back and start over with him again.
It’s not too late. At least for now, anyways.
Just tell Him, “God, I’m sorry, help me do better.”
Yes, it’s that simple. I promise.
READ NEXT-
This post has been in my draft for some time now, and when I read this piece by
two weeks, it aligned perfectly with the message of this post.
This was an interesting read. God is not our friend but he is our father. Our understanding of fatherhood determines our perspective of God. The type of love you receive from your earthly father sets the standard for your expectation of Godly love until you come into a deeper revelation of the true depth of the love of God. I pray that our hearts be always open to the continuous revelation of the identity of our father and our identity in him.
These words here are fire and they burn to purify,
Like the truth is always bitter...