Who are your five closest friends? In Divine Direction, Craig Groeschel encourages us to consider that, making the point that we will become the average of the people around us. Isn’t it true? There are friends who cause me to rise up, others who cause me to step out. Friends who challenge me to be a better mom and others who challenge me to let it loose sometimes. I wonder if God could be one of those five people. If I spent as much time around Him as one of my closest friends, I bet I would grow to be more like Him.
These summer days are naturally filled with more people, so if I want to keep God in my top five, I have to spend more time with Him, not less. For me, that looks like bingeing audiobooks, slowing down our schedule, and saying, “Okay God, what does this day look like together?”
I am finding that it’s making me want to be around Him more. It doesn’t mean I’m walking around with a halo on my head, but it does mean I’m saying less and listening more. It doesn’t mean He is saying hugely profound things all the time, but it means I’m hearing more of what He may be saying in little whispers.
It seems as I am focusing on that nearness more consistently, it causes me to see Him when the face of a stranger is kind, hear Him when someone speaks of what I’m processing, or notice a song playing on the radio that is just what I needed to hear. It means I am connecting the dots rather than chalking things up to coincidence.
What I am noticing is that as I make a conscious effort to keep God as one of my top five, my heart is at rest. I am calmed by who He is, rather than rushed in what I am doing. I hear more clearly and rest more fully. Even when my day is busy, my heart is steady.
What could we rearrange to position God in our top five? How can we foster that relationship like we would one with a close friend? I bet it would change our everything.
God is closer than we may feel, more present than we often realize. He can be one of the most influential people in our lives if we prioritize His influence and fight to keep Him in that position. It’s a fight because it’s against our nature to prioritize the unseen, but we will find a fight in our own hearts forever if we choose to live any other way.
This is the free life. This is the life I never knew I always wanted.
