Pondering God (Part 28)

28 May. Continuing our study and our pondering of God. He is Friend. Now that sounds downright primary school. "OK kids, everyone choose a partner and get on the bus" And before I let you think otherwise, stay there for a minute. What did that friend on the bus accomplish? 

That friend was there if you weren't, and told the teacher of your missing. That friend was a conversationalist. That friend was a sport's compatriot. Yes, that's what a friend accomplishes.

But wait, there's more. 

A friend sticks closer than a brother. (Prov. 18.24)
A friend loves at all times. (Prov. 17.17)

Some people think that a person who gives them things is a friend. The man who always picks up the tab (the guy who shouts the bar) has many friends. But we would put the word in quotation marks. The Bible simply says it like this: "And every man is a friend to him who gives gifts." (Prov. 19.6)

The idea of a friend and having God as friend is something more than all human enterprise. Some want God on their side adn to have everyone else along as well. The Bible makes it clear (James 4.4) "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."

I guess the battle for friendship has to do with loyalty. Who is #1 in your life? Yeshua? Great. He wants to be your friend. Your eternal forever friend. He wants to defend you against school-yard bullies and to listen to you when you are hurting, as a kid or as an adult. 

Yeshua makes this new relationship with God clear as crystal in "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you." (John 15.15)

Intimacy of relationship and conversation, confidence to disclose and to come alongside...that's God. With us. Immanuel. What a friend... all our sins and griefs to bear.