Friend Of God
Mar 26, 2025
Hello Nerdy Folks!
Have you ever been intrigued by someone? Whether it’s a someone who might be a potential love interest, someone who’s success you would like to model or someone who is just enigmatic enough to make us curious, everyone has been curious about someone. Just because we’re curious doesn't mean we actually want a relationship though. We’re curious to learn about the deranged minds of killers and con artists, but we don’t want to be friends with them.
If we are lucky enough to find someone interesting who also passes our do-I-want-this-person-in-my-life test and we actually make the courageous effort to get to know that person, we will make a friend. Friendship is deeply satisfying, but it’s not the knowledge gained about an interesting person that makes it satisfying. Getting to know someone is just the first step. It’s the peel on the orange of friendship. Spending time together, creating memories and experiencing life together is the stuff real friendships are built from.
In John 15, Jesus calls His disciples friends, and they were. They knew him. They had eaten hundreds of meals together, ridden on rough seas together, sang hymns, seen miracles, and grown very close. They were good friends.
Can we be friends with God? You might be tempted to push back against the idea of God being our friend. If you do, I get it. God is our creator and our Lord, but it’s important to recognize that Jesus was very purposeful to teach his disciples this truth. Jesus came to reveal who God was. More specifically, Jesus wanted to model the kind of relationship he intended to have with believers who lived under the new covenant. That’s us.
How do we be friends with God? It’s about living alongside and talking to and being present with Jesus, via the Holy Spirit. Jesus invites us to be friends. He sent the Holy Spirit to the church, so that everyone could have access to Him at any time.
It is possible to do everything with Jesus, and it is possible to do everything without Jesus. We can pray on auto pilot or for the sake of mindfulness without Jesus. We can read scripture and study for information or to help us build arguments for our favorite doctrines or opinions. We can attend church for community and to get a pump up, and we can do it all without truly engaging with Jesus.
Do we believe that Jesus is alive? Do we believe the Holy Spirit was sent to connect the church to the living Christ? We must accept Jesus’ invitation to friendship and allow Him to have a voice in our lives.
What are you waiting for?
We recently kicked off season 2 of Nerdy Folks Podcast! The first series is focusing on friendship. Check it out!