Friend Request

“The LORD spoke with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend” Exodus 33:23.

Growing up as a young teen, I always felt a little insecure when considering my different friendships.  As each of you are aware girls can be petty and fickle on any given day and teenage girls are professionals.  I was part of a group of friends and would always dread when I knew they were getting together without me.  I knew that the feeling of connection was directly related with our presence together.  When I wasn’t in their company I felt less secure and confident about those relationships.  Whenever I was physically with them I was privy to their conversations, plans and feelings.  Friendships span our entire lives but do we really know how to engage?  Friendship cannot be fostered without continual fellowship.

We are told that Moses spoke with God face-to-face, describing their relationship as a true friendship.  We know that Moses didn’t actually see God’s face but their relationship grew through experiencing each other presence-to-presence.  In today’s social climate we have virtual friendships, with fellowship being fostered through monitors and phones.  So I ask you and myself this morning…what are my friendship habits with God?  Do I communicate with God in a more social style climate or am I pursuing a presence-to-presence style intimacy?  Friendship should mean more than a click on the keyboard or a quickly pecked out text.  Friendship with God means we pursue presence-to-presence fellowship, being dissatisfied with a mediocre relationship with Him.  It means we desire to know His mind and pursue His purposes for our life.  It means sharing every aspect of our life with Him so we can experience real and intimate exchanges with Him.  ‘You and I are invited to come face-to-face or presence-to-presence with Christ, but that kind of intimacy only comes intentionally…no one who lives in this world is a friend of God accidentally.  We make a choice where we want to be present.  A hard choice.’ James, p. 137.

“I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father” John 15:14.  Just as I couldn’t hear the thoughts and ideas of my friends when I was absent, we cannot hear God when we do not get into His presence.  ‘The unspeakably high privilege of friendship with God makes a person humble and friendship with the world makes a person proud.  The former He graces.  The latter He opposes.’ James, 137.