From Altar: I am a friend of God

 It is often interesting to note how quick we are to drop names when people are in earshot, especially when those names belong to people of stature in society. 

Imagine being able to mention that you just had a dinner with President Barack Obama at a gathering of your peers. Suddenly everyone's ears start tingling and even those nearby gravitate towards you to know more about this close encounter which they probably wish they had.

Within moments you have become the star attraction and will become even more popular if you are able to imply that you have access to this leader and more so if you can call him your friend. In this day and age of Facebook friends, the word has taken on new dimensions. The dictionary definition of the word 'friend' makes things a little clearer.

The noun friend is used to refer to 'a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically exclusive of sexual or family relations'. The origin of the word from Old English is Germanic and related to the Dutch 'vriend' and German 'Freund', which come from an Indo-European root meaning 'to love'.
This shows us that friendship is more than just having met someone or making their acquaintance for the matter, but has a lot to do with the bonds of affection that exist between the two parties involved in the friendship.

Which takes us to the title of this post: I am a friend of God. This is the title of a song sung by singer/songwriter Israel Houghton and is a catchy tune reminding us of who we are when we have a relationship with God. In the book of Isaiah 41:8, the prophet Isaiah is speaking out that which the Lord has to say about Israel. "But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend,' He declares.
  
There are three descriptions here which are of interest: The servant, the chosen one and the friend. In the book of James, chapter 2 and verses 21 to 23, James talks of Abraham and what he did to deserve to be called a friend of God. 'Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. (NIV).

It is rare to find servants being called friends by their masters and even rarer for servants to call their masters their friends. Yet here we see that Abraham 'knew' and had a 'bond of mutual affection' with God that was so strong he believed and trusted in Him completely, even to the point of obediently taking his son to the altar to sacrifice him.

In John 15:15 Jesus says 'I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.' By saying this Jesus confirms the one thing that many a religion has failed to answer: God wants to be our friend!!

The commandments to love Him and our neighbor as we love ourselves cannot be taken lightly. If we want friendship with God we need to know Him and love Him and to understand that He already knows us and loves us. We only need to reciprocate that love by becoming His friends. The benefits of being a friend of God are plentiful!

We may never understand the depth of love that God has for us but if we open our hearts to know more about Him, we will be amazed at the lengths to which He goes to be our friend. So when you feel that tugging in your heart to know Him more and to have a relationship with Him, understand that it is His Spirit that is reaching out to you.

Being a friend of God can never be a religious act or experience as we all know that friendship is not bought, but is earned through a process of developing trust and understanding of both parties involved. Our trust in God is called faith and His trust in us is what is manifested by the favor and blessings he pours in our lives regardless of whether we merit it or not.

The best way to develop a relationship with anyone is to cultivate a friendship. If the picture you have of God is some old guy with a grey beard aad a stern face, handing out judgements that perhaps you can escape if you pray or fast long and hard enough, think again! Of course we can upset our friends by our behavior.

With God, this is called 'sin', and it has built a wall between us and Him. We however, have the grace of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus, about whom the Bible declares in John 3:16 as being God's only begotten son who took our sins on the cross to reconcile us back into a relationship with God as a friend. So today, be bold enough to seek God as a friend and not as some hard taskmaster who wants to take away the fun in your life and replace it with religious rituals.

Then you will truly be able to experience God and as the Book of Revelation declares in chapter 3 verse 20, Jesus is standing at the door knocking, waiting to come in and have that 'dinner' that we can then boast about and drop names wherever we go

Be Blessed:By John Kagaruki