What a friend...

God wants to be your best friend.

Take a breath and read that again, daring to trust that it is true.

God wants to be your best friend.

Jesus said that he calls us friends not servants because he confides in us like you confide in your closest friends. It was a stroke of genius at the Jubilee to set up a sketch with the Queen having tea with Paddington; I loved it on so many levels but one is definitely because I wanted to be Paddington having tea one-to-one with the Queen. What an astounding privilege that the King of Kings wants not just to have us to tea once but every day! God wants to befriend us and to share himself with us. God doesn’t want us simply on his staff team as receptionists or managers or cleaners or wherever you see yourself fitting in; God wants to confide in us and make himself known to us. (John 15).

Recently, I have needed reminding that Jesus is my friend it. I too quickly default to acting like prayer is a business transaction. I come to Jesus with my to-do list, bracing myself for his to-do list, instead of coming to meet my best friend.

My reminder came via a friend who told me that she daily expects God to speak to her in the first person. She reminded me that God encourages us to ask for the spirit of prophecy and revelation and that we can do that on our own at home.

It has brought new life to my Bible readings to approach them like a letter from a beloved friend. Today, I read  “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” (Psalm 27) and I deliberately stopped to hear it as the promise of my friend, “I will be your light and your salvation – why would you be afraid?”  I have found it a powerful way to read any part of Scripture that contains a promise from God – hearing it as spoken by God who is my friend.  

How does it change your relationship to God that he wants to befriend you?

The reminder that Jesus is my friend has changed my prayer this week. It made me pause as I drank my coffee in the sunshine and watched the bees sipping the nectar in my garden. My friend Jesus reminded me to stop fretting about inspiration – there would be lots of flowers with nectar to find and he will tell me what I need to share.

It has changed my reaction to the news. As I’ve watched how refugees are treated, I’m reminded that Jesus is the one who makes strangers into friends and calls us to do the same.

The reminder that Jesus is my friend helped me when I went out to a party last week aware that I now go alone. Except I don’t because my best friend Jesus goes with me.

When you know you are a friend of God, you want everyone else to be his friend too. That made me stop to chat with a man at the river today who lost his job and his home during lockdown - he had become completely isolated. Connor appeared at just the right moment so that we pray for him.

When you know God is your friend, you want to spend time with him. Brother Lawrence described how he came to God expecting to be rebuked but found instead that God was the best of friends and that the key to friendship with God is talking to him throughout our days, not necessarily long prayers that mean stopping everything but a constant turning of our hearts to the one who loves us – thank you for sunshine, sorry I was grumpy, help me with my work, show me how I can bless the person I am seeing next, help me walk with you today…

We need the help of God to be his friend because Jesus tells us that those who obey him are his friends and we cannot do obey him without his help.  He is eager to give that help because he really, truly, actually, definitely, absolutely wants to be our friend. God knows us inside-out - every warped thought, every selfish act, every ragged wound and every shameful denial of who he is and yet loves us enough to befriend us. Jesus is the friend of sinners.

Next time you open your Bible, remember that this is where you meet your best friend. Read it as written from your friend and ask him to confide in you. And next time you go out your door, remember your best friend wants to come with you.

 Whatsoever there is, or can be that is desirable to be in a friend is in Christ. (Jonathan Edwards, Works 19:588)

Jesus says, “I have called you my friend.”