Exodus 33:7-23: An Intimate Friend
Thursday, November 20, 2025
This is the sort of relationship we look to have with God – one in which we speak to God and God replies immediately to our questions and requests as if God were a neighbor, relative or friend. Yet this is the sort of relationship we have with God. We just find it difficult to see.
We have said frequently in our Noontime reflections that if we wish to hear and see God easily we must first reserve time for God each day for it is through daily petitions that we strengthen our bond with the Lord. It is important to create a meeting tent where ever we are and where ever we go. It is important to block out “God time” and “God place, even if they are mobile. Because of the pressures of our schedule we may not be able to pause at precisely the same time each day, but we must find a time to sit in silence and to listen. It is also impossible for us to be in the same place each day and so the image of a tent – a mobile structure – is apt. We must create for ourselves, no matter where we are, a spot of stillness even in the busiest of places that we consecrate to the purpose of being in God’s presence.
Many of us have heard God distinctly in a crowded, busy city just as easily as we have on a deserted beach or hillside. We have heard God’s voice, seen and felt God’s presence in the midst of work, as we rise from sleep, or in the silence of fervent prayer.
Where ever go, where ever we are, at any time, in any place, there is time and space for God. Just so does God have time and space for us. Just so does God descend from the heights to commune with us. Just so is God our most intimate friend. Let us remember to go out to meet this friend each day . . . always.
For more reflections on spending time with God as a friend, see the GOD TIME pages on this blog.
A re-post from October 26, 2011.
Images from: https://www.fau.edu/newsdesk/articles/childhood-friends-study.php and http://justkiddin.onslow.org/justkiddin/2011/03/friendship-is-a-two-sided-coin/
The Noontimes 