Take just a minute to get a clear mental picture of your best friend.
Got it?
Now, think of a few adjectives you would use to describe your best friend.
Did you think of words like loyal … trustworthy … honest … loving … faithful … reliable … authentic … funny … patient ….?
What about godly? Would you describe your best friend with that word? After all, if your friend is godly, wouldn’t he or she also be loyal, trustworthy, honest, loving, and so on?
This gives us an idea of how important friendships are to God. If calling someone “godly” sums up the very best attributes of your very best friend, then that means that you can see God in your friend. And hopefully they can see God in you too!
Jesus told His followers that He viewed them as friends. He told them…
…how close to God He could bring them (John 14:20)
…how much the Heavenly Father loved them because they loved Jesus
…how much He was willing to do for them because of His love (John 15:9-13)
…how the Holy Spirit would continue to keep them close to God (John 16:12-15)
Eugene Peterson said, “Friendship is not a way of accomplishing something but a way of being with another in which we become more authentically ourselves.”
Your best friend is someone you can be completely real around, right? No games, no masks, just come as you are. And your friend still loves you completely. This is how it is with God as our Best Friend too!
There is nothing you could ever do to make God love you any less, so stop worrying!
There is nothing you could ever do to make God love you any more, so stop trying!
Friends love us enough to be totally honest with us. That’s why Solomon said, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy only multiplies kisses” (Proverbs 27:6).
Friends want us to have the very best, and to stay on paths that lead to success. So again Solomon wrote, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend” (Proverbs 27:17).
Oswald Chambers tells us, “Friendship with God is faith in action in relation to God and to our fellow men.”
So be assured of God’s friendship with you. Then be God’s friend to those in your life, and allow them to be God’s friend right back to you … THAT’S WHAT REAL FRIENDS ARE FOR!
I would like for you to get a really clear picture in your mind of your best friend. This is someone you have opened your heart to, and they have opened their heart to you as well. This is the friend that encourages you when you’re down, but never when you’re on a self-destructive path. This is the companion that cries with you when something is broken, but who also challenges you to accept responsibility if you are the one who broke it.
Do you have that friend clearly in mind?
Now I’d like you to imagine if your interaction with your friend went something like this. Every day around 7 o’clock in the morning, you call your friend and say…
“Good morning! I’m so grateful you took my call. Listen, I’ve got a few things that I’d love for you to help me with today. I’ve been fighting a cold and I’d really like you to help me feel better. My Aunt Sally is in the hospital, and it would be great if you could stop in to see her. Also, that guy at work has really been on my nerves lately and so I need some insight on how to deal with that. It would so great if you could help me with all of this. If you do, I’ll be singing your praises to everyone I meet. Have a great day. Thanks!”
And then you hang up and never talk to your friend again until the next morning when the exact same scenario is repeated. How do you think your relationship would progress? Do you see your relationship getting deeper over time, or becoming more distant? I’m guessing that, like me, you don’t see a future in this relationship.
Sadly, this is how many people treat prayer! We come to God once a day with our list of concerns, ask Him for His help, then say “goodbye” and never think about Him again until the next day. Or until we find ourselves in desperate need.
But we forget: God never leaves us!
We also forget something even more vital—God wants us to talk with Him, and He wants to talk with us, as a friend to a friend.
Abraham was called a friend of God—Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend (James 2:23).
Moses, too, was also God’s friend—The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend (Exodus 33:11).
This isn’t something that was just for them, but it’s relationship that’s available for ALL of us—For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God (Romans 5:10-11).
From the moment we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, His Holy Spirit took up residence in our heart. Before Jesus ascended to Heaven, He promised us, “I will talk to the Father, and He’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth” (John 14:16).
Amazing! Astounding! Mind-blowing! But totally true—Prayer is conversation with a Friend!
How would your day go differently if you kept up a conversation with your Best Friend all day long? How much more wisdom do you think you would receive? How many mistakes could you avoid if He was telling you which way to go and what to say?
You don’t have to live with the “what ifs.” He IS your constant Companion, your most loyal Friend, your wisest Counselor. All you have to do is keep the lines of conversation open!
Application questions:
How can I know God wants to be my Friend?
Have I been introduced to God?
How can I make the time to deepen my friendship with God?
My best friend is my confidant, my playmate, my cheerleader, my counselor, my wife of 22 years.
I love you, Betsy! I cannot imagine a better friend. I cannot imagine how much of life I would have missed if you hadn’t been by my side, opening my eyes.
The first 22 years have been amazing. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us for the next 22 years!
What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. (Joseph M. Scriven, 1855)
He’s the Friend that sticks closer than a brother.
He’s the Friend that’s always there.
He’s the Friend who knows what you need.
He’s the Friend who can provide what you need.
What a Friend!
How much we miss out when we don’t talk to our Best Friend!
It sounds like a long time, but it’s only 1095 weeks. That’s just enough time for my life to have been irrevocably changed for the better, and just enough time to know that we’ve only scratched the surface.
Betsy, I cannot wait to see what the next 1095 weeks are going to bring us!
Twenty-six years ago I began a relationship with my first girlfriend. Twenty years ago today I married my first and only girlfriend. Today I am more in love with you than I ever thought would be possible!
You are my best friend, my confidant, my favorite playmate, and still the only woman I’ve ever had eyes for.
He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD.
I’m so grateful that Solomon’s words have been a massive understatement for me. Being married to you has been so beyond good, and God’s favor has saturated my life.
So here’s to the next 20 years… I can hardly wait to see all that God has in store for us. And having you right by my side to share this adventure makes it all the more fulfilling.
When I was a kid we would often sing a hymn at church that had this chorus:
Count your blessings, name them one by one
Count your blessings, see what God hath done
Count your blessings, name them one by one
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done
Today is the 6,940th day I am counting the many blessings of being married to my best friend. Every day I am blessed that Betsy said yes!
King Solomon wrote, “The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the LORD.” My life has certainly been full of treasured moments and crowned with God’s favor these past 6,940 days because I found a good wife.
Baby, here’s to the next 6,940 days—it’s going to be even better!
His countrymen were under attack from their archenemies. David prayed, and God told him to go rescue his countrymen. But when David called his loyal teammates together, they weren’t as enthusiastic about this plan as David was. This must have made David second-guess if he heard from God correctly, so he prayed again. Once again God confirmed, “Go fight the bad guys.”
They fought, and God gave them the victory. And the newly-rescued town hailed their deliverer as a hero. They invited him into their town and gave him the best meal, the best place to stay, and the highest honors they could give. But people are extremely fickle. They heard there was a reward out for David, and they thought the money was worth more than this hero’s presence in their town, so they conspired to turn him in.
David prayed again, asking God’s guidance. God said, “Yes, it’s true, they are going to turn you in. Time to run!”
So David ran. Ran for his life. Day after day after day after lonely day David ran through the desert, dodging the men seeking his life. As you might expect, David got tired, his men became discouraged and probably started to grumble. David thought to himself, “I’ve only tried to do the right thing. I haven’t harmed anyone, in fact, I’ve liberated oppressed people. This shouldn’t be happening to me.”
David—the almost-constant pray-er—didn’t pray. It stands out so starkly compared to his previous pattern. Whenever he was in a tough spot, or needed guidance, or even needed reassurance, David prayed. But not here in the desert, on the run, pursued by a relentless foe, surrounded by grumbling “friends.” No, he just retreated from the field of victory, from the fickle crowds, from his enemies… and from his God.
And then these great words appear in the narrative: “Jonathan went to find David.”
Jonathan, David’s covenant friend, didn’t sympathize and say, “You have every right to be upset.” He didn’t counsel David to attack his pursuing enemy. Jonathan didn’t tell David, “If I were you here’s what I would do.”
“Firm, graceful, loving, faith-building friendships can change the world.” —Craig T. Owens
I am so very blessed to have “Jonathans” in my life. They have shown up in my deserts at just the right time and helped me find strength in my God—helped me get back to my roots.
I pray you have a Jonathan or two (or three!) in your life. They are extremely rare people, so diligently nourish those relationships. And even more, I pray that you will be a Jonathan to a friend who is on the run.
Craig T. Owens 