Hanging With God

I heard a "religious" teaching recently where the person said, "you can't hang with God". I honestly didn't listen to much else on the teaching because I knew how wrong those words were. My heart actually broke for the person; here he was a leader and he believed he couldn't hang with God.

For me, I immediately countered what was said with the words of Jesus in John 15:15, "I don't call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn't know what his master is doing. But I've called you friends, because I've made known to you everything that I've heard from My Father."

Jesus is my best friend and I hang with Him everyday. Those words, spoken in that teaching, didn't hurt me, but it made me realize how many "mature" Christians believe that they "cant hang with God". My question is, if you can't hang with God, who can you hang with?

I know intimately, the meaning of "nothing can separate you from the love of Christ" (Romans 8:35-39), including yourself. As a teenager and young adult I didn't want to "hang with God. I saw people in the church who spoke of all the things you had to do to receive God's love, and they spoke about how much God loved them, but they were not living what they were preaching. If that was God; if He didn't like me the way I was, I didn't need Him. 

But God did love me. He loved me so much that when I ran from Him he pursued me. He put road blocks in my path to turn me back to Him, and He never, I mean NEVER left my side. When I was ready to finally accept His unfailing, unconditional love, all I had to do was the slightest turn to be in His arms.

Since then, I have spent nights talking with God, crying with Him, and my favorite, laughing with Him. I have heard His voice, understood His words, and even felt His arms wrap around me. I hang with Him. I tell Him everything, even though He already knows it, and I seek to know everything about Him. 

I find it sad that there are people who read His word; study it; teach it, yet don't know Him. What I have learned in my "hang time" with Him is that nothing you do is worthy of the love of God, but He loves you anyway, so much so that "while we were still sinners" (Romans 5:8) He sent His Son to die a brutal death so that we can be reconciled to Him. He missed "hang time" with you that much.

Not only that but He knows us so well, that He knows we will mess up and we will jeopardize our time with Him. Because He wants us so much, He gives us someone to help us. Holy Spirit lives in us so He can always be with us. He doesn't just want "hang time', He wants to be one with us; and with the Holy Spirit He is. Holy Spirit guides us, teaches us, helps us understand, strengthens us, encourages us, and comforts us. There is no better friend. 

John 15:13 "No one shows greater love than when he lays down his life for his friends" Jesus did that for me; He did that for you. He wants to call you friend. He wants to hang with you right where you area at, and if you don't feel worthy, that's okay, just accept His unfailing, unconditional love and then let Him send you the Holy Spirit to cleanse you and to pull you out of the miry pit and set your feet on the Rock. (Psalm 40:2) He loves you, He always has and He always will.

If God is pulling on your heart and you would like someone to pray with please message me at carrie.noble.94@facebook.com or find a local church to pray with you.