Teens Meet Outreach

Who is God? He is that nice guy that gives freebies – all the time. We are used to collecting freebies from Him that we fail to sit down with Him to get to know Him, asides the guy who gives freebies.

Have you had that one friend who you give things to and he/she doesn’t reciprocate the same feeling towards you and it gets exhausting because it is always hard giving without having anything in return. You would want to be sure that it is not a one-sided relationship.

God has feelings too. You can’t call someone your friend unless there is common ground between you two.

You are God’s creation and he desires to have a relationship with you. The bible says that two cannot be one except that they agree. You were created in his image, so you are likened to God already.

The first thing you need to be working on is to get your heart in tune with God. You need to think like Him and you cannot do that except you both begin to rub minds together. You can’t be friends with someone who does not like the same thing as you do. In fact, before you can say this particular person is your friend, then there must be something that they do that got you attracted with them.

How Can You Be Friends with God?

1. You must understand who you are in Christ

The bible says that you are a new creation. Old things are passed away. You can’t be friends with someone you lie to easily. On many counts, the bible recounted God as one who is Holy. Lying is a sin and God detects sin. He cannot associate himself with sinners. I am not saying that only lying separate you from God; anything you do that hurts your integrity and your honesty is a sin. You are a new creation; you no longer move with the world but in the word. You are born again, you have a new mind and you think like Christ.

2. Get to know Him

God is a person and He has feelings too. Even if your character doesn’t move God or change who He is because He is the “I am”. Whether you worship Him or not, it does not change who He is. He cares so much for you. Everything He asks you to do, it is for your own benefit. In fact, God doesn’t need anything from you, He just wants you to get to know him better so you can hear clearly when He speaks.

He wants you to be able to Identify His voice from the voices.

3. Separate yourself from the crowd

If you notice in the bible, when God wanted to share secrets concerning the life he had for His servants like Daniel, Abraham, David, Solomon and so on, He spoke to them in their alone time. You cannot just worship God in Church on Sundays and on Wednesdays and except God to speak to you. You don’t become the first in class by just attending lectures. You become the best by your secret hours spent labouring. That same theory goes with God, if you want God’s direction, you must learn to separate yourself from the rest of the crowd to get to know Him better.

4. You must be meek and lowly in heart

On many counts in the bible, it said that God resists the proud. You can’t be friends with someone who thinks he is better than everyone else. To be God’s friend, you need to be lowly in heart. If your shoulders are set too high, you can’t hear him properly, you need to bring it down. He can’t be friends with you if you don’t see Him as one who cares so much for you. He loves and adores you so much and that is why you must be low in His presence because He is the only person who wants the best for you without anything else in return.

5. You must be joyful

You can’t go into the presence of a King with a sad face or a gloomy heart. In the presence of God, there is fullest of joy and at His right hand, there are pleasures forever more. You can’t take His presence lightly, that is why you need to drop all your baggage and worship Him. He knows things are not well with you. He sees everything that is why you don’t need to come into his presence worshiping him with a gloomy face.

6. See Him as a person

God is not only your friend in good times. In fact, the bible says that He has loved us unto the end of the world. So when you are hurting, tell him – recall that you both are friends and nothing should be hidden from Him.

It is safe to tell Him your secrets because it is just between you and Him.

Recall you are not perfect so He understands. No matter how worse that secret is, tell Him, He cares. As soon as you offload your worries and pain on His shoulder, He leaves you with peace and rest. He is that faithful. He gives freebies of any kind for free. He is the kind of friend that offers you 100:0. He gives you everything.

7. You must learn to forgive

To be God’s friend, you must be open to forgiveness. You are not doing it for them, you are doing it for you because there will come a time you will need forgiveness from God, so you will not feel guilty while asking.

Offering forgiveness to your offenders is not just something you do to free them but it is also for your peace of mind. Your sanity and freedom.

Apart from it being a commandment.

8. You must learn to love without conditions

This is one of the traits of Jesus on earth. His unconditional love for the saints. He was able to sacrifice so much for you and me without getting to know us. Both unbeliever and believers. Doing this whether we loved Him in return or not. God expect you to emulate this character from Him. The bible says that the companion of fools shall be destroyed. Like minds attract each other. Now, you should be able to love without conditions and expectation because that is the character of your maker.

9. You must learn to love God

This is utmost Commandment. You must love God with all of your heart, soul and mind. God called King David His friend. David is the perfect emulation of who a friend of God is. David saw God has a person and not a status. He prayed, praised and often inquired of God.

He saw God’s Opinion as relevant that is why he was often in communication with God.

You too can experience this if you start serving God as a person and not just a guy who gives freebies.

---

How do you intend to draw near to God from this day onward? Do share in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe to this blog to not miss a post.