As you may know from the Facebook group, our focus this month is on friendships and having confidence in them. To prepare for this month, I had to step back and reflect on my friendships over the years. I explored what I loved about them, what I didn’t like, and where I wanted to go in the future. And my God, I got tons of revelation. But more importantly, I recognized that God is my best friend.
Usually, I would break down friendships, their meaning, and the types you should have, which I would talk about in another post. But I want to focus on why I consider God my best friend and use the best friend imagery to help you understand how he desires your relationship with him.
Initially, I only thought of God as a Father, Savior, and Provider. It was so hard for me to see Him as a friend because of my history of experiencing relationships as transactional. But when it came to my best friend, I could understand how intimate, consistent friendship meant.
And when God called us a friend in John 15:15, this is what he meant.
I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. NLT
The scripture differentiated the difference between being a servant and a friend. God ensures us that as a friend, we will know His plans.
Jesus and Friendship
Furthermore, he’s encouraged us to do so much more in our relationship with Him like:
- Confide in Him about our life plans
- Be able to listen in on His will
- Cast our cares on Him
- Praise/celebrate Him
- Forgive as He does
- Experience peace and joy
- Be your best self with Him
- Be humble and honest
- Have the same mind
- Someone trust and lean on in times of trouble
All though some are difficult for us due to our human errors and fleshly desires, God wants you to experience friendship in this way. The reason why forgiveness is so important.
On the other hand, he doesn’t want you to be in a friendship where you aren’t chosen, adopted as family, loved, and not supported. So make sure you are looking for these things when making new friends and establishing lifelong friendships.
Why God Is My Best Friend
When I think of a best friend, I think of these seven key characteristics:
- Telepathy – Knows your thoughts, ways, values, and needs.
- Empathy -Understand you without judgment
- Honesty- Clar communication and speak truth to you with love.
- Generosity – Giving without expectation from the heart, not out of obligation.
- Loyalty – Stands by your side, someone you can trust.
- Humor – Hav joy, laughter, and peace when you are with them.
- Encouragement- Support, uplift, and build you up.
God provides all of these and so much more!
You can also use these characteristics as a checklist when determining your best friend. But what I also learned is that your best friend isn’t always a lifelong friend. The fantastic thing about God is that he will be the best friend you ever had and can/will be one for life if you allow Him to be.
I hear so many women stating that they don’t have many friends. But the truth is you will always have a friend in Jesus. cue the old pentecostal song
What Friendship with God is Not
However, I don’t want you to think of Jesus as your brunch buddy, even though He is always with you. Of course, fun activities and doing things together are a part of friendships, but God cares about the internal intimacy between you two.
The truth is lifelong friendships thrive on inner intimacy, not acting alone. But if your friend values getting up and doing, then your love for your friend will cause you to respect their needs and values while still staying true to yourself. And if there is conflict in that, then it’s time to re-evaluate their place/category in your life or end your friendship altogether.
And if you are anything like me, my previous statement sounds so harsh, but it’s necessary. Like anything else in our lives, we must steward our friendships well.
Manage Your Friendships Right
But enough about that, I want to encourage you to move or maintain God at the top of your friend list. You remember Myspace, the social media before social media, which I miss, by the way. We all had a top-five, and it was essential to keep the right people in order. It’s the same in adult friendship, with God as number one always.
When I finally saw God as a friend, I opened up a new level within my faith and relationship with Him. I began to feel like I a part of the crew. Not that I was a god, but that I was finally a part of His team in a bold and confident kind of way.
I cherish the new side of God that I experience, which has given me so much freedom in prayer, bible study, and worship. As if we were chatting for hours, listening to the same song, and reading each other’s minds, the joys that we often experience in our genuine friendships. I now share that with God, laughing, crying, and taking on the world together. This also is why I love the scripture in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 NIV:
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
So much better together!
All in all,
I hope the words ignite a fire in you to pursue a friendship with God and better your current friendships the way God designed them to be. If finding friends is your task, then you can use this blog post as a criterion for creating new friendships.
If you need additional support navigating how to build a friendship with Jesus, I encourage you to reach out for a Confidence Chat.
And if you want to stay connected with resources for relationship-building, join the new Women Seeking Confidence Facebook Group here.
