BFF! What Can I Do to Bring You Joy, Today?

I’m sure God loves when we come to Him in prayer, but usually, when we check in with Him, it is only to give Him our long prayer request and wish list. Can you imagine how He must feel when the only time we go to Him, it is only to present Him with our wants, desires, and needs? Then there are those who never ask anything of Him. They take pride in not having a “wish list”, but a “thanksgiving list”. God is such a good, good Father and He is receptive to each request we make and He loves our hearts of gratitude and thanksgiving. If we know He sees and hears us every time we pray and every time we come to Him with hearts of gratitude, can you imagine how He would feel if we visited with Him as truly our best friend who had wonderful friend-to-friend conversations with each other?

The idea of God as a friend doesn’t diminish the fact that He is our Heavenly Father. He is also our closest, best friend. I would never go to my best friend and just ask her for things and tell her what I need her to do for me. Neither would I incessantly thank her for being my friend. I would tune in to my friend’s heart and we’d mutually share about our families and what’s going on in our world. I’d ask her if there was anything I could do to help her.

God is our Friend Who is ALWAYS loving, caring, guiding and directing us, so maybe our conversations should start with “Lord, what can I do to bring You joy today?” That simple question will lead to answers. Here is how He answered me. I took a friend to lunch to encourage her. I heard His still small voice say: “This brings me joy.” Those words came from deep within. It confirmed that God was delighted by what I was doing. He saw something I didn’t. Perhaps it was the fact that I was encouraging His girl and building confidence in her. I’ll never know for sure, but I like to think I brought God joy and that was enough.

On another day, a friend messaged me. She was having a bad day and having to move out of her home immediately. I went to her, helped her pack and carry loads in my car for her. There it was again, an inner knowing that I brought God joy. It’s easy to assume that it’s the bigger things that bring God joy — like telling someone about Jesus or changing the world. Certainly, these are beautiful in our Father’s eyes, but these small moments matter to God, too.

As we begin our everyday conversations with God asking, “What can I do to bring You joy today?” our spiritual ears will open. We will discover that some of the smallest events of our day are actual miracles as we partner with God to love people.Coming to God as a friend as well as our Heavenly Father draws us into the wonderful relationship Paul talked about in Romans 5:11: “So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.”

When we ask “What can I do to bring You joy today, Lord?” We just might be surprised at the answer.

John 15:15, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”