POINT TO PONDER:God wants to be my best friend.
REFLECT: How did today's reading impact you?
Can You hear me now? Good
God wants to be my best friend... the creator of the universe desires that I know Him intimately. "Knowing and loving God is our greatest privilege, and being known and loved is God's greatest pleasure. Friendship with God is built by sharing all of my life experiences with Him. We're building great habits of spending time with Him each day during these 40 days, that is a great habit. But God wants more! He wants to be more than an appointment in my daytimer. He wants to be included in every activity, every conversation, every problem and even every thought. 
       "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." (John 15:15 - New International Version)

       "He is a God who is passionate about His relationship with you." (Exodus 34:14 - New Living Translation)
How do I develop my friendship with God?
Through constant conversation. We build friendships through constant interaction- in shared experiences of highs and lows, celebrations, defeats, tragedies, victories, challenges. I can build my friendship with God in the same way by spending time interacting with Him-- talking, and especially listening to Him, through all of life's circumstances. I love "Practicing the Presence of God", it a simple book that shows how to develop the habit of "a practical, on-going conversation with God" in my everyday life. How can I invite Jesus into my workday today? On Sunday, Larry suggested setting the alarm on your clock, and praying each time we get in the car. Any suggestions? What works for you? Reply back to info@cbfchurch.org and I'll publish the findings later this weekend.
A second "secret" to becoming best friends with God is through continual meditation. Meditation is often misunderstood as some difficult, mysterious ritual practiced by isolated monks and mystics. But meditation is simply focused thinking -- which is really a skill we all tend to use a lot. Rick Warren suggests that we just tend to have focused thinking on the wrong thing - mulling a problem over and over in my mind-- worry. He suggests we already know how to meditate, it's just a different focus. I just need to switch my attention from my problems to Bible verses. Here's a simple start. Listed below is the memory verse for this week. What if you and I started by printing out this page and committing it to memory, to thinking about it all day today? 
   "Oh how I love Your law!  I meditate on it all day long" 
   (Psalms 119:97 - New International Version)
As the commercial says: Can You hear me now? Good
PRAYER:
"Gracious Father, thank You for wanting to be my best friend. Today, I earnestly desire to be a better friend to You. I'll be talking with You and thinking about You all day. I look forward to sharing this day with You. Amen"
FOR MY CONSIDERATION:
   How can I carry on a conversation with God throughout the day today?
This week's Memory verse: 
 	"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and 
	with all your strength."                         Mark 12:30 (NIV)
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