Friend of God

“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. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” – John 15: 13-15

For the first 7 days of July, I have been participating in what Anne Graham calls 777.  It is a time of praying for our nation.  For the first 7 days of the 7^th month we pray prayers led by Anne Graham online. We pray together, with one voice, in unity to God.  It is a time for repentance for our nation.  On the 7^th day, we have been asked to fast for 7 hours. 

Today, is day 3.  Here is a portion of the prayer that troubled me:

• “We repent of our attitude of familiarity with You that has caused us to lose our reverential fear of You, and thus we have not even the beginning of wisdom with which to handle the vast knowledge we possess.”

The reason this troubled me is because the Bible refers to Jesus as our friend.  I struggled with the fact that I have heard it preached so much that we are to fear and respect God.  I asked Jesus today, “I know You call me friend.  I don’t want to demean you or fall short in my reverence and awe of you.  How do I know I have this right?  How do I reconcile friendship with you and fear of you? I know these things come together somehow but I want to understand more.”

Nobody can tell me that God is not real, or that He is not always listening, or that He does not respond to our prayers.  I kept trying to rationalize this in my mind and tried to figure out how to reconcile it. 

On the way home, I was listening to my favorite Christian author and teacher, Beth Moore when she was discussing how God came to Abraham as a friend and how much she desired to be a friend of God.  I immediately asked out loud, “But how can we do this?”  Then, she asked the same question. Next, she referenced John 15:14.  I was in awe!

I have felt God leading me to study John 15 through the 40 Days to Become that our church is participating in.  Today, God opened my eyes to something I have been trying to see clearly for so long.  Sunday’s message at church touched on how we are lacking fear and reverence toward God by thinking of Jesus as our “homeboy”.  It was then I asked, “How can I call Jesus my friend yet, still have a healthy fear and respect at the same time?”

The reconciliation is in John 15:14.  It is our obedience to God (which comes from fear and the desire to keep His commands), that brings us to a place where He reveals his deepest secrets to us – as friends.  Unless we fear God and seek to obey His commands, we cannot have friendship with Him!  It’s so simple.  So perfect. So God.

I can know now that I Am a Friend of God!