My 17-month-old daughter, Abigail, has a variety of communication abilities at her disposal. She can cry and is quite good at that. She can point & grunt and has also become fairly skilled in sign language. She has also learned that giving Daddy his shoes communicates that it’s time to go on a walk. She has perfected the word, “Hi!”, and says it better than anyone I know. I treasure her efforts to communicate with me. There’s not much more I would rather do than have a quality conversation with my daughter.

Abigail’s challenge in learning how to communicate with other people reminds me of the challenge we as sinners have in learning how to communicate with God. Our sinful natures are hostile to God (Romans 8:7). This makes building a friendship with Him quite difficult.

A good example of this is Moses’ journey in learning how to converse with God as a friend. When he was a young adult in Egypt, there were some serious communication gaps between him and God. He attempted to assert himself as Israel’s deliverer from slavery without even talking with God and seeing what He had in mind. As a result, he had to get out of Egypt in a hurry (Exodus 2:11-15). Later, when God told Moses to go back to Egypt, he was full of questions and excuses (Exodus 3:1-4:17). To his credit, he did go back to Egypt, but when things went sour for a while, he complained and asked God why He had sent him there (Exodus 5). But by Exodus 33:11 Moses’ ability to connect with God has changed remarkably: “So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.”

I’m sure Abigail will one day be an expert in communication. She will learn from her parents, brother, and other associates. In the same way we must learn how to talk with God from others who have already learned how. There are many such people in the Bible. As we learn from Moses and ultimately, Jesus Christ, one day we can become experts at conversing with God as a friend.

Even more than I want to have a quality relationship with my daughter, God wants to experience meaningful conversation with us. Revelation 3:20 pictures Jesus standing at the door of our hearts. He is calling out our name, wanting to come in. And notice why He wants to come in: “I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me.” There is nothing that would make Jesus happier than to be able to sit at a table across from you and have a quality conversation. In fact, He wants you to sit with Him on His throne throughout eternity for that very reason (Revelation 3:21).