Now Friends

Friends reveal secrets to friends. When something really good happens, what do you do? You call your friend. And when something really bad happens, you also call your friend.

If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, then you are a friend of God. And because you are a friend of God, He wants to reveal His secrets to you. The Bible says, “The Lord is a friend to those who fear him. He teaches them his covenant” (Psalm 25:14 NLT).

God wants to reveal His purpose and plan for your life. God does not play hide-and-seek. He is concerned about revealing His will to you today.

God said of Abraham, His servant, “Should I hide my plan from Abraham?” (Genesis 18:17 NLT). When you have a relationship with God, He will reveal His plan for your life.

Jesus said, “I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me” (John 15:15 NLT).

We need to learn how to discern the will of God.

I have been a Christian since 1970. I wish I could say that after years of walking with the Lord, I have discovered a foolproof plan for knowing the will of God in every situation. However, such a plan doesn’t exist. Like any other Christian, I’ve often found myself stumbling into the will of God.

There have been times when God has spoken to my heart, I made a move, and it was what He wanted me to do. But there have been other times when I’ve simply ended up in the middle of God’s perfect plan.

I don’t know that we can always have a foolproof method of knowing God’s plan in every situation. But I do think we can take steps to prepare our hearts to know His will more effectively.

We start by presenting ourselves as living sacrifices to God. The Bible says, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him” (Romans 12:1 NLT).

We tend to want to know God’s will before we decide to give ourselves to it. For instance, when your friends ask if you’ll do them a favor, you probably say, “What kind of favor?” You want to know what they’re up to before you agree to help.

In the same way, God asks, “Are you willing to do My will?” And we say, “Tell me what Your will is, and then I’ll tell You whether I’m willing to do it.”

Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27 NLT). It is not enough to just hear the voice of God. We need to do what He tells us to do.

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