I Am a Friend of God
by Peter Brokaar
Isn’t is nice when someone calls you their friend? It’s a lovely feeling really, and we all long for this acceptance from others. Friends share, listen, care and help each other. Without friends, life’s tough. But with quality friends, great people who choose to be with us, we can handle almost anything.
Friendship is a two-way street of course. It’s not nice to be in a relationship that’s meant to be a friendship, but, in reality, it’s more like one-way traffic. Whether the other person is completely self-absorbed, or whether they are ‘all about you’ and won’t share their own heart, either way is grossly unsatisfactory.
It’s the most incredible thing to me that we can be friends with Almighty God. If Scripture didn’t say it, I don’t think I would have dared to believe it. But here we have it, Abraham was friends with the Lord, and it’s possible for us to be friends with Him as well.
What stands out for me is that friends share their heart with each other. They feel they can safely entrust their inner thoughts to their friend. You probably know that you can share your heart with God and I can guarantee He already listens to you. He’s a great friend indeed. But did you know that God also wants to share His heart with you?
Jesus said to the disciples ‘I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you’ (John 15:15). He shared His heart with these men because He knew they were true friends. They didn’t just care about themselves, they cared about Jesus and what He had to say.
In Psalm 25:14, it says ‘The LORD confides in those who fear him’. How amazing is that! When we start caring about the things the Lord cares about, He’ll start sharing His heart with us. It’s almost too hard to believe that God Himself would desire our friendship, and longs to share His heart with us. It really makes me long for a deeper friendship with Him. Do you? He’s done so much for us. It’s incredible that He loves us so much. What a blessing it is that He brings us into His counsel, and we can have the enormous privilege of being called His friend!
Let’s ask Him to help us care about the things that matter to Him, so He might safely share them with us.
Prayer: Father in heaven, it’s is truly amazing that I could possibly be Your friend. I want to have a deeper friendship with You. Please help me to care about the things You care about, and to love the things You love. Change my heart God and make it more like You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Peter Brokaar is Director of Ellel Ministries Scotland and has been there together with his wife Liz since 2005. They have 3 kids, all born in Scotland! In his free time he likes reading, cooking, running and surfing. Being at Ellel Scotland has given him the privilege of getting to know God deeper and sharing that joy with many others.
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