THE NARROW PATH TO RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD - DAY 66

by Rev. Robert John Cericola, Carroll, OH - EUA 

Day 66

Friends

James 2:23 (AMP) And [so] the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) God, and this was accounted to him as righteousness (as conformity to God’s will in thought and deed), and he was called God’s friend.

2 Chronicles 20:7 (NKJV) Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever?

Friends in today’s society are often people we have shallow relationships with. We know who they project to be on the surface but we never really know their hearts. However, when God called Abram His friend, it wasn’t because He had a surface relationship with an acquaintance, it was because they had a covenant relationship.

Proverbs 18:24 (NKJV) A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

The friend that sticks closer than a brother is a covenant partner. Covenant partners have committed their all their resources and their lives to each other and subsequently they come to know each other deeply.

Moses knew and was known by God! There were no secrets between them. Of course, God knows everyone deeply, but only those in covenant with Him come to know Him deeply. And we through our covenant relationship with Jesus Christ are no long called servants but friends.  

John 15:15 (AMP) I do not call you servants (slaves) any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing (working out). But I have called you My friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from My Father. [I have revealed to you everything that I have learned from Him.]

Jesus, in revealing everything He heard from Father was revealing Himself as well as His Father. Remember Jesus told the disciples if you have seen me you have seen the Father. When Jesus becomes your Lord and Savior you enter into a covenant relationship and become His Friend. Since we are His Friends we can expect to become deeply acquainted with Him.

Ending Thoughts

"A friend should bear his friend's infirmities" [William Shakespeare Julius Caesar]
"The belongings of friends are common" [Aristotle]

Even Shakespeare and Aristotle had a grasp on what it meant to be real friends. Do you? Are you able to bear your heart to the Lord? And will you allow Him to show you His?