I’ve spent the last day pondering friendship with God. When we get saved we become sons and daughters. However, I don’t think we are all friends. We are all potentially friends but I think friendship is something we are invited into as our relationship with the Lord deepens. Friendship is a place of intimacy where there is a sharing of hearts. There is a place in God’s heart which is reserved for each of us individually. I heard Kris Vallotton mention how most of us desire to know God so that we always hear Him and obey. While that is good, he said that is still a master servant relationship. Friendship is more of a sharing, a give and take. When God and Abraham negotiated the terms for the destruction of Sodom, I believe they were operating out of a friendship paradigm. God let Abraham have input into the decision. I think the same thing was happening when God was going to destroy the children of Israel and Moses intervened. The Bible tells us “God spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to His friend.” Could it be that friendship is the answer to the power, the authority, the intimacy we seek? I think it is at least a large part of it.

John 15, Jesus mentions that He has told the disciples everything because they are friends. There is an intimacy to friendship that servants, no matter how trustworthy will never experience. This didn’t mean they stopped serving God. Likewise we can be friends, but we are still sons and daughters. I wonder if some of this is played out in how we interact with each member of the Trinity. Is our relationship with Jesus more friendship while with Father God it is more sons and daughters? I don’t know and I don’t know if it matters. What I am convinced of is that there is a level of intimacy, a level of heart connection with God that few of us have ever experienced. I think Rolland Baker, a missionary to Mozambique, understands some of this. The first core value that their organization has is that God can be known. I’ve heard Rolland say that much as he loves the miracles, the signs and wonders, that he is after something much bigger. he says, “I am after Him.” He understands that Jesus is the ultimate prize.

I have Logos Bible software with 1700 volumes on my laptop. I looked up friendship with God and I can’t find anything of value. I find that strange, but it tells me that this is not something that can be pursued intellectually. It is a heart issue and parts of it are uniquely personal between each believer and God. I don’t think the road to friendship is widely travelled.  Most are content to live their life with god vicariously, reading about others.  It is however, the ultimate journey with the ultimate reward.