You want God for a Friend!

Needing a friend? God makes a great friend. He really does! When you become His friend, you possess the most valuable thing in the universe—the loyalty of God.

One man who had this was David, and many generations were blessed as a result. There were times when God was inclined to judge the people because of their sinfulness, but then He would remember His covenant with David and relent. God basically said to the people, “The only reason you’re being blessed right now is because of my loyalty to David.”

God honored His loyalty to Abraham in the same way. God told successive generations that He would be with them and bless them specifically because He was maintaining His loyalty to His friend, Abraham. The point here is, when God is loyal to you, He gives you as spiritual inheritance in every successive generation.

There’s one story in particular about Abraham that demonstrates God’s unusual loyalty to His friends. It actually happened at a time when his name was Abram. Abram was afraid that the king of the land, Abimelech, would see how beautiful his wife was and kill him in order to marry her. So Abram told his wife, Sarai, that she should clain to be his sister in order to preserve his life, which Sarai agreed to do. When Abimelech laid eyes on her and heard she was Abram’s sister, he immediately took her into his house and began preparations to bring her into his harem.

But God came to Abimilech in a dream and said, “You’re a dead man—you’ve taken another man’s wife into your house.”

Abimilech replies, “Lord, is it Your practice to go around killing entire nations of righteous people? I haven’t so much as touched the woman.”

The Lord said, “You’re dead.”

Abimelech immediately remonstrated, “But Lord, he told me she was his sister, and she herself said the same thing.”

The Lord said, “You’re dead.”

Abimilech came back, “Lord, I did this in total integrity and with innocent hands!”

“Yes I know,” cam the answer. “But the man’s a prophet. So restore his wife to him, or you shall surely die, along with all who are yours.”

In my mind I’m thinking, “Lord, aren’t You being a little hard on Abimelech? I mean, Abram is the one who has blown it here. Abram is the one who has lied and cowered in fear. Abimilech is the good guy in the story. SO why did You come down so hard on Abimelech?”

I can imagine the Lord’s answer, “Because Abram is my friend. I know him, and he knows Me. I always stick by My friends.”

God was loyal to Abram even when Abram was wrong.

If this is the kind of loyalty that flows in God’s heart, then I want Him to be loyal to me, too. Because I need a God who will be my Friend even when I make foolish mistakes (which is often enough).

This is the God who has won my loyalties.


*From the book, "LOYALTY" by Bob Sorge

I Moved a Mountain!

For countless times, I have heard our beloved Pastor Andrew preach about the power of our words. “If you want things to change in your life, change the things you say,” he said on his message for a Wednesday night service titled, “Anong Say Mo?” Even the verse in Mark 11:23 (“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”) that he shared during Gen Up (Generation Uprising) became one of my favorite verses.
I was thrilled by the idea of my words coming to be and thought of the changes it could do in my life.

Soccer training at our school even while raining is already normal for us. In fact, I find the feeling of running around under the rain, better than being able to kick a goal. No, make that two goals.
It was raining cats and dogs and the wind is blowing so strong, you could literally hear it whistling at your ear every now and then. I was one of those people who easily gets cold and with that strong rain, I know it would be just as chilly. Remembering Pastor Andrew’s message, I immediately declared, “Ang init naman!” wind blowing, rain pouring and all.

Training ends by 7pm and it was a Wednesday, just in time for the mid-week service. Tired and still slightly damp from the rain, I voyaged into the air-conditioned sanctuary and stayed there for the entire service. With how thin I am, I know I was in danger of getting sick, but I didn’t want to. Even if I could already feel the slight pain in my throat whenever I speak as a sign that I am about to have a sore throat soon, I still declared that I was healed and there is no sickness in my body in Jesus’ name.

On our next training while changing at the girl’s comfort room, I overheard some of my other team mates talk about how cold it was during our last training, then I remembered I only felt a slight chill that time I could hardly even notice it. And for the entire week, no sore throat, colds or whatever was able to touch me, just an unforgettable experience of when I told a mountain to be cast into the sea and it followed.