Got a Minute? BFFs without Talking?

Hi, friends in exile, got a minute?

In my children’s message this past Sunday, I picked two of the boys (one of whom just moved here from across the country) and asked them to become “best friends.” They laughed awkwardly. But then, to prepare them for my assignment, I put a blindfold on one of them and told the other one he could not talk. Then, we all waited—even more awkwardly! Finally, I took off the blindfold and asked them how it was going at becoming best friends. “Not too well,” one of them said. All the children agreed that it was hard to become friends without talking with each other.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures.” My point went something like this. We cannot become very close with God without talking with Him, either. Prayer is the mode in which we pour out our souls to God. We open the Scriptures to hear His voice—with our eyes open to His self-revelation. “Be devoted to prayer,” writes Paul, “being watchful and thankful.” We not only want to see the enemy coming, we want to see where God is at work, also.

Smiley Mudd