A Friend of God?
Klaus Issler once wrote a book he entitled, “Wasting Time with God.”
I love that title. I love it because if you think about it, we waste time with the people we love the most. In fact, more often than not, that’s how our deepest friendships are formed. In his book, Wasting Time with God, Issler wrote,
“… the majestic God of the universe will go to great lengths to enjoy a deep friendship with us.”
What if that’s true?
Friendship Without Words
I don’t remember exactly when it happened, but I remember how I felt when it happened. Alisha and I had been dating for a while. And you know how it is when you first meet someone special. You talk all the time.
Back in those days, there wasn’t social media. I couldn’t stalk her on Facebook or Instagram. We didn’t even have cell phones. So we actually had to talk to each other to get to know each other!
Back in those days I was in college in Nashville, TN and I worked at a church in Lebanon, TN which is about a 30 min drive. And every week, on Sundays and Wednesdays, Alisha would go with me to church. And we would talk the whole way there and the whole way home.
Then it happened.
On one of those drives something happened that I didn’t know was going to happen. It made sense that it would happen at some point, but for some reason I didn’t see it coming and I don’t think she did either.
But at some point the car got quiet. We ran out of things to say. We had talked about everything we could think to talk about and it was silent.
The first time it happened I got really nervous! Scared even! What does this mean? How could we have possibly run out of things to talk about?
And then, it hit me. We didn’t have anything to say and… that was ok. I was completely comfortable just being with her, driving down the road together, in the quiet. And I realized that in a way, this is what true friendship feels like.
The Enemy of Friendship
I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced that. The moment when words run out and it’s just quiet with you and another person and the feeling that it’s ok. It’s ok because just being with that person without words is enough. It’s ok because being with them and being quiet isn’t uncomfortable. And realizing that this is actually a quality of deep friendship.
The truth is, we live in world that tries desperately to eliminate quiet.
Any pause or moment of silence we seek to eliminate. We turn the radio on every time we get in the car. We turn the TV on as soon as we aoke up in the morning and then we fall asleep to it at night.
We walk around with headphones always in our ears. Chances are now when you try to talk to someone they’ve got earbuds, airpods, or full on headphones in their ears or over their ears which makes any chance at real and meaningful conversation almost impossible.
There isn’t a moment when there isn’t noise. And the enemy of friendship is NOISE.
We live in a world where people have never been more connected, but have never felt more alone. Somehow, our technological connectivity has left us more isolated and lonely than ever before.
What’s worse, we feel disconnected from God.
What if…
But what if you could know God? What if you could not only know God but be friends with God. What if it’s true, that “… the majestic God of the universe will go to great lengths to enjoy a deep friendship with you?”
Psalm 84, I believe, was written by someone who had experienced deep friendship with God. Someone who knew what it meant to spend so much time with God that at some point, you run out of things to say and yet, just BEING in His presence with Him is enough.
And from that experience of being with God, in the presence of God, the psalmist writes…
Psalm 84
1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
2 I long, yes, I faint with longing
to enter the courts of the Lord.
With my whole being, body and soul,
I will shout joyfully to the living God.
3 Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young
at a place near your altar,
O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God!
4 What joy for those who can live in your house,
always singing your praises.
Selah, pause and calmly think about that
Pilgrimage into Presence
In ancient Israel, people would travel, make a pilgrimage, to the Temple in Jerusalem every year to worship because that’s where the presence of God resided. And on the way they would sing this Psalm. This psalm that reminded them that nothing compares to being with God in the presence of God.
In fact, being with God in the presence of God was so important, so critical to their lives, that they would literally stop working, stop wanting, stop worrying and make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem so that they could be with God in the presence of God!
And as they traveled, they would continue to sing the words of this psalm…
5 What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord,
who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
6 When they walk through the Valley of Weeping,
it will become a place of refreshing springs.
The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.
7 They will continue to grow stronger,
and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.
8 O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, hear my prayer.
Listen, O God of Jacob.
Selah, pause in His presence
Always Preparing for…
What happens when you enter into the quiet place to be with God in the presence of God?
One of my long time mentors, Randy Harris, taught me that the spiritual practices, time spent in prayer, time spent with God, is crucial for our lives because “we are always preparing for we know not what.”
And you see that here again in this psalm. The time will come in all of our lives when we will walk through the Valley of Weeping.
This is part of the human experience. This is part of living in a world completely broken by sin.
And the question really isn’t, Where is God? God has said He is with us, He is for us, and His Spirit is even living inside of us. He goes before us and He comes behind us. Where is God? God is there in the Valley of Weeping.
The question for us is have we spent time over time in Selah? Have we taken time to be with God, in the presence of God, in the quiet?
It’s there in the quiet places where our friendship with God is formed and we are prepared for whatever may come our way. And when we are living in friendship with God, then even in the Valley of Weeping we will find “a place of refreshing springs.”
The Valley of Weeping
I think about my friend who lost a child but didn’t lose her faith but instead found that in the Valley of Weeping God is there and there is a place of refreshing springs.
I think about my friend who lost her husband to cancer but didn’t lose her faith because she found in the Valley of Weeping that God is there and there is a place of refreshing springs.
I think about many of you who have gone through the hardest of times, some of you are still going through it, and yet have not lost your faith because you’ve found in the Valley of Weeping that God is there and there is a place of refreshing springs.
You have found what the psalmist found. He writes…
10 A single day in your courts
is better than a thousand anywhere else!
I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God
than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.
11 For the Lord God is our sun and our shield.
He gives us grace and glory.
The Lord will withhold no good thing
from those who do what is right.
12 O Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
what joy for those who trust in you.
How do you become friends with God?
If you think about it, your closet friendships are probably with those people who you regularly waste time with. We waste time with the people we love, that’s what makes us close to each other.
It’s that time over time that’s wasted but ironically, is never wasted. It’s time spent on car rides, road trips, doing puzzles, watching movies, listening to music together, playing board games together, decorating the tree at Christmas, cooking together at Thanksgiving, taking a walk, just sitting and enjoying each other’s presence.
There’s something sacred about spending time in the quiet with God. About wasting time with God. That’s where friendship with God is formed. That’s where our souls are refreshed, our lives are centered, and faith is secured.
And I just wonder if it’s time to bring back quiet time?
Wasting time with people is what makes us close.
When was the last time you wasted time with God?
Here’s what I want to suggest today…
Friendship with God is found in the quiet place.
Quiet Time
Friendship with God is found in wasting time with God. Sitting in his presence, walking with God, spending time in prayer… not the kind of prayer where you’re asking God for stuff, the kind of prayer where you’re just sitting quietly in his presence or just telling him about your day.
And I don’t know about you, but there are places where I experience God’s presence in significant ways.
I can’t go to the beach and sit with my feet in the sand beside the ocean and NOT experience God. If I go into the mountains all I see is the beauty and majesty of God on display in the Rockies or the Smokey Mountains or the Appalachian Mountains and I experience the presence of God. When I go fishing on the lake in the early morning hours and I can’t NOT feel God’s presence.
In all these places and more I encounter God. And those times and those places are special to me.
But just as special are the mornings when I wake up with a cup of coffee, open my Bible, and sit quietly in the presence of God with no agenda, with no interruptions, and with no expectations except to be with Jesus for a few minutes.
Just as special are those moments when I experience the majesty of God in nature are the moments when I turn off my phone and quiet my mind and invite God to abide in me as I abide in Him.
And maybe just maybe this is what we all need.
Maybe it’s time to bring back quiet time.
Come to Me
If I could encourage you to do one thing as we end this series, it would be to accept the invitation of Jesus who said,
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” – Matthew 11.28-30
Jesus has extended the invitation, will you come?
In Psalm 27.8 the psalmist says it this way,
My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”
What if we accepted the invitation of God to come, to talk with him, and when the words run out, to simply rest in His presence? And what if we were willing to waste time with God and become friends of God?
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