Hello everyone and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible teaching ministry that's here to encourage and inspire you every day.

And today we're continuing our series called Awesome Relationships. In it, Rick Warren shares practical ways to help you take your relationships with family, friends,

coworkers, and even God, from ordinary to extraordinary.

And this is a series you don't want to miss.

And now here's Rick with part one of a message called Becoming Best Friends with God.

Now, what kind of relationship does God really want with you? You ever thought about this? What kind of relationship does God really want?

Your relationship to God has many aspects. God is your father. He is your creator. He is your maker.

He's your judge. He's your master. He's your Lord. He's your Redeemer. He's your Savior.

And he's many, many other things. But most shocking of all is this.

God wants you for a friend.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

God wants me for a friend.

Yes, he does.

The Bible says in James chapter four, verse eight, draw close to God and he'll draw close to you.

It's just pretty simple.

You draw close to God and he will draw close to you.

Now when we want to know what God's relationship is like, we need to go back to the very

beginning of time and look at the original

ideal relationship in Eden. Because when God created Adam and Eve, they enjoyed this incredibly

close, intimate friendship with God. There was no religion. There were no rituals. There were no rules, except don't eat

of that one tree. That was the only rule. He said, you can do anything else. Just one rule.

No regulations. No all of the rigmarole that you find in so many religious things today.

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