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b'When I pray out loud with friends, some of them begin by saying, \\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153Hi God.\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d At first, this struck me as odd and maybe even disrespectful. After all, God is the Creator and Supreme Ruler of everything. But I realized it actually makes some sense to talk to God in this casual way because God wants to be in this kind of relationship with us: personal, everyday friendship. And knowing that He is also the amazing, glorious, almighty King of the universe makes that friendship even more incredible!\\nThink about it. When Jesus\\u2014who is fully God and fully human\\u2014was living on earth, people hung out with Him. They went for walks and ate snacks and laughed at jokes together. Jesus wasn\\u2019t serious all the time.\\nJesus came to live with us, and this is still the kind of relationship God wants to have with His people. He wants to share everyday things with us. We can talk to Him about anything and everything. Prayers don\\u2019t need to be fancy or impressive, because we\\u2019re talking to our friend. It\\u2019s also pretty cool that we can pray anytime, because God already knows our thoughts. It\\u2019s like telepathy but better! He invites us into a lifestyle of sharing with Him, of being open and constantly interacting with Him (1 Thessalonians 5:17).\\nAnd even though God already knows everything we\\u2019re experiencing, and He knows everything we\\u2019ll ever say before we say it (Psalm 139:1-4), God still invites us to talk to Him. In fact, He loves it when we talk to Him! Because He loves us. One of the reasons Jesus came was to show us who God is, what He\\u2019s like, and what kind of relationship He wants us to have with Him. When Jesus let Himself be killed on a cross, He showed that God loves us so much that He\\u2019s willing to die for us. And Jesus\\u2019 death was powerful because it paid the price for all of humanity\\u2019s wrongdoing. Jesus came back to life and showed Himself to His friends because He wanted them to know Him and be with Him forever.\\nGod made a way for us to be in close relationship with Him, no matter what we\\u2019ve done. If we\\u2019ve put our trust in Jesus, we can know that God has totally forgiven us, and nothing can separate us from Him anymore. He is always so near, so eager for us to reach out to Him. When we talk to God like a friend, I think it makes Him really happy. \\u2022 Hannah Howe\\n\\u2022 How have you heard people start conversations with God? How do you like to talk to God? \\n\\xe2\\u20ac\\u0153There is no greater love than to lay down one\\u2019s life for one\\u2019s friends.\\xe2\\u20ac\\x9d John 15:13 (NLT)\\n\\xa0\\nRead Verses:\\nJohn 12:23-28; Galatians 5:13-15; Philippians 2:1-15'