God`s Friends

Just in case you were wondering – God values your friendship! Friendship is one of the many precious gifts that God has given to us and the blessing and sheer joy of friendship in life`s journey, particularly with the Lord, is something to be sought after and cherished. It feeds our human spirits and develops and nourishes the depth and breadth of our whole being.

The first evidence of this in the Bible is that of Abraham where, purely on the grounds that he believed God, it was credited to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. Subsequently, we are privileged to be privy to God’s thoughts which he voices in the words ‘Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do?’ as He goes to view the situation in Sodom and Gomorrah. We then read the fascinating account of this growing relationship as God shares His heart with His friend, thus allowing Abraham to enter the sublime place of intercession on behalf of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, before the ensuing judgment.

Friendship involves trust and fellowship, and God is the perfect confidante! It is a two-way thing and has to be nurtured. In spite of all our idiosyncrasies, shortcomings, weaknesses and failures, He’s not put off! God’s love doesn’t alter when we alter and He doesn’t cast us aside.

In fact, often times, when we’re in deep personal need, it’s then that we discover that He is indeed ‘a friend that sticks closer than a brother’. He knows exactly where we are at and how best to reach us and how to communicate with each of us personally, and He wants to share something personally with each of us today.

Noticeably, one of the hallmarks of Abraham’s life was obedience, and in today’s verse Jesus highlights obedience as a pre-requisite to friendship with Himself.

He then went on to declare that He had shared all things with His disciples that He had heard from His Father. What a sobering thought! The Almighty and Everlasting God desires to trust those, with whom He is in covenant relationship, with His innermost thoughts – and He seeks out our company!

We value earthly friendships, and rightly so, but friendship with the Lord is to be most valued and held in the greatest of esteem, highly honoured and guarded at all costs. Our well-being depends on it, and through it we can minister joy to the Father as He shares with us what’s on His heart.

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for desiring intimacy with us. Please help us never to take Your friendship for granted, for in You we live and move and have our being, and we love You Lord. Amen.