The Delights of His Friendship. Genesis 18 brings
out the delight of true friendship with God, as compared with simply
feeling His presence occasionally in prayer. This friendship means being
so intimately in touch with God that you never even need to ask Him to
show you His will. It is evidence of a level of intimacy which confirms
that you are nearing the final stage of your discipline in the life of
faith. When you have a right-standing relationship with God, you have a
life of freedom, liberty, and delight; you are God’s will. And
all of your commonsense decisions are actually His will for you, unless
you sense a feeling of restraint brought on by a check in your spirit.
You are free to make decisions in the light of a perfect and delightful
friendship with God, knowing that if your decisions are wrong He will
lovingly produce that sense of restraint. Once he does, you must stop
immediately.
The Difficulties of His Friendship. Why did Abraham
stop praying when he did? He stopped because he still was lacking the
level of intimacy in his relationship with God, which would enable him
boldly to continue on with the Lord in prayer until his desire was
granted. Whenever we stop short of our true desire in prayer and say,
“Well, I don’t know, maybe this is not God’s will,” then we still have
another level to go. It shows that we are not as intimately acquainted
with God as Jesus was, and as Jesus would have us to be— “. . . that
they may be one just as We are one . . .” (John 17:22).
Think of the last thing you prayed about-were you devoted to your
desire or to God? Was your determination to get some gift of the Spirit
for yourself or to get to God? “For your Father knows the things you
have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8).
The reason for asking is so you may get to know God better. “Delight
yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your
heart” (Psalm 37:4). We should keep praying to get a perfect understanding of God Himself.
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