Is  Jesus your friend? This is a question I sometime ask myself as I spend time with God in my daily devotion.  Do I do my devotion out of duty, or because I truly value His friendship?

When we say we would rather go to heaven, is it because we long to see our friend Jesus or because we don’t want to go through of long suffering of illness? 

If we are pastors or Christian workers, is Jesus our friend we long to be with daily or do we treat Him as our business partner because of the job we are involved in?

The Bible has a lot to say about our friendship with God. In Psalms 25: 14, it says “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear Him and He makes known to the His covenant”.

Imagine that we are having coffee with our good friends. We treasure seeing them and we find it natural to share with them anything in our hearts. If we are having coffee with God, do we feel at ease and delighted to share with Him the joys and heart-aches that we normally share with our good friends on earth?

The Bible does have several passages that talk about friendship of God’s people with Him.

Jesus explains the reality of His friendship with God to His disciples: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends” (John 15: 15). If Jesus indeed is our friend, don’t we feel delighted to spend time with Him?

When we study the Old Testament, we also find that there are others whom God has called His friends.  Abraham has deep relationship with God and God has referred Abraham as His friend: “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend…” (Isaiah 41:8). Abraham’s friendship with God displayed reverence and obedience in his walk with God. The life of Moses also shows a unique relationship with God. “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11). It is almost unfathomable that the Creator of the Universe – the one through whom all things come into existence through His Word would call these men, as well as us too, His friends.

Friendship is faithful, hopeful and aggressively committed to the well-being of the other person(s). Friendship vegetates on the platform of faith, searching out how to please individuals involved at all times. This was the kind of friend Enoch was to God.

The night before He died, Jesus told us what a good friend He would be if we met one condition. He said to His disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you” (John 15:13-14).

These words of Jesus convey the meaning of all He would do for us as our friend. They also convey what we must do to be His friends.

There is an old well known Him called “Jesus is all the world to me”. Whenever I sang the last verse below, the lyrics would challenge me.

“Jesus is all the world to me,

I want no better Friend;

I trust Him now, I’ll trust Him when

Life’s fleeting days shall end.

Beautiful life with such a Friend,

Beautiful life that has no end;

Eternal life, eternal joy,

He’s my Friend”.

May we find such joy with Jesus, our true friend!