11/16/2024 Devotional 'Making Friends with God'

Read Isaiah 55:1-7

Those that seek me early shall find me. - Proverbs 8:17

It is saddening how many people turn to God only as a last resort. So long as things are going well with them and they have material comforts they wish, the health they desire, and their friends about them, no thought of God or their relationship with Him enters the vestibule of their minds. It is only when something tragic happens to them that they turn to religion. You recall what the tavern hostess said of Sir John Falstaff:

"He cried out, 'God, God, God!' three or four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him not to think of God; I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with such thoughts yet."

The pathos of all this is of course that a man does not and cannot get from God the help he needs in a crisis unless he has made God's acquaintance before. When we are in trouble, we do not expect help from strangers; we expect it from friends. And we are not disappointed. Our friends have shared our joys; they help bear our sorrows. He who calls to God only in emergencies does not always find Him even then. We cannot borrow character in a crisis. We cannot fix up a friendship with God, and expect it to mean very much, on our deathbed. Since, therefore, faith, and character, and inner spiritual resources will someday be indispensable, we should seek them now. Since someday we shall have to cry to the gods of our choice, we should find now One who will not fail us.

Prayer

O God, our Father, whose love can save to the uttermost, we thank Thee that no life is too marred that Thou canst not redeem it when penitence doth admit Thy grace. But save us from basely presuming upon Thy mercy. Instead of offering to Thee but the dregs of life, help us to give our best to Thee, who hast given Thine all for us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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