Will you let God be your friend?

“I wish more people would share their problems with me.”

Said no spiritually healthy person, ever.

It is a good thing to be WILLING to hear another’s sorrow and to help bear their burdens.

It is a good thing to be TRUSTED enough that people are willing to share their sorrows.

But we need to understand this: burdens are best shared in the context of relationships.

God did not create some people to be those who dump burdens and some who bear burdens.

One of my early mentors once told me, “A friend is someone who will laugh when you laugh and cry when you cry. Beware of someone who can only do one or the other.”

I think I have often put the emphasis on the crying part of that. I’ve realized that there are people that like to be around for the fun, but conveniently disappear when times get hard.

Those aren’t friends.

But here’s something that is just as true: a person who can’t share joy as well as sorrow isn’t a friend either.

A person who doesn’t have time to laugh with you because there are too many problems in the world isn’t a friend.

And if a person is only able to dump their sorrows on you, but can’t manage to share their joys, they may consider you a counselor or a therapist, but they don’t really consider you a friend.

Plenty of people are willing to dump their sorrows, disappointments, and grievances on you.

Heck, a perfect stranger will stop you in Walmart to complain about something if you will let them!

But when was the last time someone told you a secret that filled them with almost unspeakable joy?

That probably doesn’t happen often because we only share those things with real friends.

This morning I read this quote from Oswald Chambers: “What is the sign of a friend? Is it that he tells you his secret sorrows? No, it is that he tells you his secret joys.”

Did you know that God wants to be your friend?

No, not your good buddy in the sky or “the man upstairs” who has no standards, who doesn’t care about sin, and who is just there to give you what you ask for.

He wants you to share your hurts, concerns, sorrows, and brokenness with Him.

He wants to comfort you, forgive you, and release you.

He also wants you to tell Him about your joys (and thank Him as the Source of every good thing).

He wants to rejoice with you.

But He also wants you to listen to Him.

Here’s the kicker: for some people, all they ever “hear” from God is how far short of His standards they have fallen.

They don’t feel like God has spoken unless He has spoken in correction.

God also wants you to hear how much He loves you, how much your life matters to Him, that you bring Him joy when you spend time with Him, and that you bring Him pleasure when you live into the amazing purpose for which He made you.

Will you let God be your friend?

Be amazing today, my friend.