Friend to God

     I don't know about you, but I find friendship hard as an adult.  It's not that I don't want friends, but it takes time, effort, energy, and sacrifice to make a friend and be a good friend.  As a mom, I often put so much effort into ensuring my kids are afforded the opportunities to make friends and connect with them that typically I don't feel like I have a whole lot of time leftover for myself.  Besides my kids, there is my spouse who deserves my energy, love, and time so we can connect and continue to grow in our relationship in this busy season of parenting teens (who don't yet drive themselves anywhere).

    I previously shared about how I encountered the Holy Spirit and felt the invitation to friendship with God.  It was a monumental moment in my faith journey and helped me see that friendship isn't with people alone, but that God is a perfect friend.  I am not saying that we shouldn't have friends and making an excuse for my lack of effort in finding friends.  Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says, "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: if either falls down, one can help the other up.  But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up."  I see great value in having friends, but I am simply taking more time to consider and meditate on God as my friend.  

    These thoughts were provoked by a book I am reading called The Awe of God by John Bevere.  At the end of each chapter, he shares some questions to ponder, and at the end of Chapter 32 one question that hit me was "Have I been a good friend to God?".  Let me be super vulnerable for a minute.  I have craved deeper friendship for much of my life, and when the Holy Spirit met me with friendship this past year it was a beautiful gift that I didn't know I needed.  He even gave me a clearer picture of a friend with some simple advice, "Know me as a friend, and then you will know a real friend when you see one."

    But getting back to that question from Bevere's book, I am reminded that friendship is two-sided.  In fact, many friendships in my life have faded away over time because they felt one-sided.  Now I do realize that God doesn't "need" anything from me.  He is perfect and complete, and there is nothing I can do to add to His value or character.  Yet He still desires friendship with me!

    So how does one return friendship to God?  I am all for the fact that God knows everything about me and loves me.  But I struggle to even skim the surface of who God is.  In different seasons of my life, He has revealed different characteristics of Himself that helped me, but I believe the invitation to friendship is one in which He is offering Himself to be known.  

    God doesn't hide from us but rather makes Himself available to be known if we choose to know Him.  God is also omnipresent (everywhere at all times), therefore we can see Him in the daily moments of our lives if we choose to notice Him.  We don't have to have something to say or need something, but can choose to come into the silence with God and just be with Him.  And we certainly don't have to have it all together because God is enough when we choose a relationship with Him.  

    As a result of this question, "Have I been a good friend to God?", I am challenged to know Him better.  Not just knowing about Him or spending time with Him in the word and prayer, but asking Him to show me where He was present in my day and asking Him to specifically help me understand His characteristics.  My first stop, 1 John 4:16 says, "So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.  God is love...".  And just two verses later, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear."  Lastly, in verse 19 of this same chapter comes this deep truth, " We love because he first loved us."  

I know you love me Lord; but as a friend, I want to really know.





  

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