Many people think that God is their friend, but they don’t know how to use that friendship. They see it as a distant relationship, not a close one.
- Many people think of God as a parent, not a friend – and a harsh, cruel, demanding, angry parent at that.
- At a great distance – they do not have a working friendship. But rather, a very distant relationship that they hope they can count on.
- Not the day-to-day, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute friendship that it could be.
A friend is somebody who can’t be imposed upon. Everybody else is an acquaintance.
- A true friendship is something to be used. It is not like the expensive china that never gets used because you’re afraid you’ll break it.
Half the population on the planet see God as a kind of parent (like their mother or father)
- We insist on personifying God, but God is not a person
- “Our Friend, who art in heaven”
Re-source: Recognize
identify (someone or something) from having encountered them before; know again
You have to have real willingness. “You have to be willing to see Me where you find Me, not only where you expect to find Me.
- “You have to see Me where you find ME – and find Me where you see Me.”
- “A lot of people see Me but don’t find Me.”
- To “recognize” is to “know again.” That is to re-cognize. You have to come to know Me again.”
“Whether you call me Jehovah, Yeweh, God, Allah, etc, I am, What I am, Where I am, and I will not stop loving you because you got my name wrong.”
You must be willing to suspend what you imagine you already know about God in order to know god as you never imagined.
- In the irony of all ironies, you may have to abandon the church in order to know God. Without a doubt, you will have to at least abandon some of the church’s teachings.
- Explore other, non-traditional, points of view
You are “sure as hell” – about a lot of things. But wouldn’t you rather be “sure as heaven”?
They were not “commandments.” They were “commitments” made by God to the human race; ways that we could know that we were on the path back to God.
craving and resource from “Friendship with God” by Neale Donald Walsch
