Let’s talk ‘friendship,’ Dear Ones.
The intimate bond that exists between people that love each other’s company – where energy is invested in that time getting to know one another, exploring ideas and experiencing life with someone that makes us laugh, someone that we know we can count on. Friends often emulate each other because they’re “made of the same stuff” and both get immense satisfaction out of doing life certain ways. Friends defend one another.
There are three men called “friends of God” in His Word … Abraham, Moses, and Lazarus. They are hardly the only important players in the Bible but that language appears reserved for them for some reason. So, let’s consider why. First, these are guys that went to their deep ends with God. Guys that believed what He had to say. Guys that supported Him by their actions. They sought out and listened to His counsel and spent their lives devoted to His plans for them and their people. They trusted Him and they acted.
The one verse in Scripture that mentions God, as Jesus, crying points back to the death of His friend as the reason. True friendship is treasure.
Friendship is big and it is very important that we know that the Holy Trinity of God, Jesus, and Spirit is our Friend as well. God designed us for it. In fact, Jesus states plainly that He views us as friends, not as slaves, and the proof is in all the secrets of life that He shared with the friends He made on his journey here. Friends are equal in spirit. Christ wants us to understand that He wants us to become His friend because He’s invited us in and we choose to be in that space. From there, He wants the same intimacy we explore with each of our “bests.”
Think about that. He wants to know each and every one of us and wants us to understand Him. Wants us to know what He is doing in our lives or have faith if we don’t. Abraham and Moses were told directly by God what His future plans were. Then He made requests of them. And they acted on His Word. Though, admittedly, they couldn’t possibly have had the foresight to see the future like God did. But they loved Him and, in essence, said “Okay, God… I believe you and I’m following you to the end.” A nation was born and delivered into the promised land as a result.
His Word is loaded with directives of how we can join Him by believing what He says and emulating what He does. We need only look to the life of Jesus, God’s Word… His “voice.”
When we decide to go that way, we can both experience the intimacy of relationship with Him and we can trust that our actions are moving us towards something that will serve our people, the human race, in some way. Trust and action. The stuff of friendship. The choice is ours.
Then, as an added bonus: His Word says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
We have talked about the Ukraine situation every week and do not want to forget the horror that is going on every day as so many die and so much is destroyed. Let us continue to pray for them and all our “friends” in need knowing that our Lord of Love can help them starting with working through us as friends to our fellow man. I would encourage you to give where and when you can, as your heart moves you.
Poppa 