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10 Minutes Peace
by Susan McGrath
Parenting experts tell us that we shouldn't be friends with our kids. We can't be the authority figure and the loving disciplinarian as well as someone they pal around with as they would their peers.
I have to agree with that, for the most part. Friendship, perhaps, can come later when they have grown up and even become parents themselves.
But there's an exception to this rule. God.
I recently read a devotion about God wanting to be our friend. This wasn't a new concept for me, but thinking of Him in the many different roles at once was rather daunting.
He is our Father, Savior, Creator, Judge, Provider, Protector, and yes, even Friend.
Like any friendship, one with God takes time and effort. We must spend time with Him through prayer and study. We must live a life in which He can comfortably be present. We must be proud to introduce Him to our other friends.
James 2:23 says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God's friend."
Speaking to his disciples in John 15, Jesus said, "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything I have learned from my Father, I have made known to you."
What better friend could we have than one who knew us before time, knows the length of our time, has a plan for how we should spend our time, and spent time as one of us.
Many hymns and praises talk about Jesus as a friend ("What a Friend We Have in Jesus", "Jesus, Friend of Sinners"). But I can't think of any off the top of my head that mention God as a friend.
Besides, isn't Jesus as a friend the same as God as a friend? Perhaps. We can picture Jesus as a friend because He took human form. God the Son took human form. God the Creator wants to have a friendship with us. That simplifies things, doesn't it?
We think of God in many of his other roles, but the friend part is hard to grasp. Yet we need to reach for a friendship with our Creator. He's the best friend we can even have!
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a recovering journalist trying to encourage others and glorify God through writing;
living the small-town life with husband Tim and sons Lincoln, 12, and Sawyer, 6;
completing a few put-off writing projects while using chocolate for therapy.
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