We always love to relate to God as Father. and we worship Him as King; we want to obey Jesus, our Lord, and Savior; and we desire to listen to the Holy Spirit as a Counselor and Teacher to us.
How many of us can often say that God is our friend. Some people worry that we might become over-familiar with God and lose a sense of reverence for Him if we think of God as our Friend.
One of the most famous verses about friendship with Jesus is from John 15:13-15, where Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
It is amazing to know that there is a superhuman who is with us as a friend and He loves to be with us.
Here are some ways you can grow your friendship with God
1. Be Closer to Him
Scripture records that “[t]he Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11). The duration of spending time with Him defines the depth of your friendship with Him. Isn’t that how we would cultivate closeness with our friends, too? Likewise, we need to regularly meet with God and spend quality time getting to know Him more intimately.
2. Revere Him
While we can enjoy closeness with God, our intimacy with Him is also built on a deep reverence for Him. The Bible says, “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant” (Psalm 25:14).
For better understanding, think that if you befriend a king, there always be reverence. As God is a King, you can show reverence along with your friendship.
3. Listen to Him
And this is why Jesus tells us, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).
Just as friends would listen attentively to what each other are saying, so we, too, can cultivate our friendship with Jesus when we pay close attention to what He reveals to us about the Father’s business.
4. Obey Him
It’s not just enough to listen to God tell us what’s on His heart. We also must do what He confides in us. Jesus says as much: “You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:14). We are building a relationship with Jesus when we obey what God commands us to do.
5. Celebrate with Him
When John the Baptist was being compared to Jesus, he didn’t claim glory for himself, but exalted Jesus, saying, “The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:29-30).
Friends naturally rejoice with each other and want the other person to succeed; their joy is our joy. We don’t see healthy friendship as competition. In the same way, when God’s glory is shown in a situation in which we are involved, do we celebrate our Friend’s moment, or do we want to compete with Him and divert the limelight to ourselves instead?
6. Love Him
Loving God as a friend involves loving Him loyally, in spite of difficulties; loving Him intimately; and loving Him self-sacrificially, just as He loves us.
Proverbs 17:17 compares friendship with loyal brotherhood: “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.” Good friends weather thick and thin together, instead of abandoning each other when the going gets rough. There will be times in our relationship with God when things becomes difficult. Would we love our Friend unwaveringly through these times as well?
Finally, the love of friendship is self-giving. After Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13), He proved His love for us by laying down His life on the cross, so that we can be made alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:5).
Would we, in our love for our Friend, love Him self-sacrificially, too? He gave His life for us. May we reciprocate by loving Him more than our own lives, so much so that we do not even shrink from death (Revelation 12:11).
There is no greater love than this that we can give to our beloved, precious Friend.