Friendship and Power
Can I receive friendship and power without first humbly coming before God in deep times of prayer and meditation?
One of my biggest motivators for continuing to spend ample amounts of time with God in prayer and meditation is to discover and receive the things that were promised to any follower of Christ. In the book of 2 Corinthians, Paul declares that "all the promises of God find their Yes in him" (2 Cor. 2:20 ESV). I should desire what is being offered to me by God and I should believe that He will fulfill every promise He's made to me. At minimum, I desire to receive two things that have been promised to me: friendship with God and power from the Holy Spirit.
God has promised me friendship with Him. The Lord Jesus, Himself, considered His own disciples as His "friends" (see Jn. 15:15). I want to have that deep and close connection with God in my life. I want to experience what authentic friendship with God is like. I want to know where that friendship will take me and how far that friendship can go. I want to receive all the benefits of this kind of friendship. I'm really curious about what Jesus really meant when He called us His friends.
Close friendship with the King is being offered to me. And so, I spend appropriate amounts of time with God each and every day believing that it will work towards cultivating this friendship with Him. Can I really have a deep friendship with God if I'm not willing to go deep in my own times with Him? How many of us can grow a strong friendship with another human being without deep and consistent contact with them? I'm pretty sure I have so much to learn about what friendship with God really looks like. But I believe that having a strong spiritual habit of prayer and meditation is a good place to start that discovery.
God has also promised me power through the Holy Spirit. Jesus declared that His disciples will receive power from the Spirit at some point in time (see Ac. 1:8). It happened in Acts 2. I want that kind of power too. But I hope I don't desire this power so that I can use it for selfish and self-centered purposes. Instead, I desire to use this power to live a life that is much more pleasing to God. I've come to realize that I really need God's power to help me change—to change my character, my attitude, and my behavior. I want to look so much like my Lord and Savior Jesus. I need God's power to help me get there. I also desire to use this power to serve God well in His Kingdom work. It is my yearning to serve my Lord by serving other people with the hopes that they would follow Christ as well. I need God's power to help me serve with the right motivation and with the ability to bear really good fruit. Can I bear good fruit without first being deeply connected to the True Vine—Jesus? Jesus, Himself, said: "Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (Jn. 15:5 ESV).
If I want to have friendship with God and experience His power in my life, there's really no other way but to actually spend ample amounts of quality time with the Lord. I really want to receive what has been promised to me. That's one of my biggest motivators for spending lots of time with the Lord in prayer. I want to see how far this goes. Can I receive friendship and power without first humbly coming before God in deep times of prayer and meditation?
Barnabas the Monastic
Servant of Christ. Husband. Dad. Modern Monastic. I have a wild ambition in life: get as close to the Lord Jesus Christ as I can while on earth. I explore and integrate ancient Christian monk wisdom in modern everyday life. Lives in Canada.
