Growing a Friendship with Jesus

The other day, I was thinking about Jesus being my friend. I have long wondered exactly what that is supposed to look like. After all, it's not quite the same as my other friendships, because I cannot see Jesus with my eyes, or touch Him, or enjoy spending time in His physical presence (not till heaven, anyway). So what does it mean to have a friendship with Jesus while here on earth? I was thinking about this, when I noticed something about the following passage:

"Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." (John 15:14-15)

Did you catch that the reason Jesus calls us His friends is based on communication? If we stop to think, we can easily see that our earthly friendships are based on communication. After all, the degree of closeness we enjoy with our friends is directly related to the quality and quantity of our communication with them. 

But our friendship with Christ isn't based on how often or how well we communicate with Him; it's entirely based upon the fact that He has communicated with us. And what He has communicated is everything the Father told Him. 

So, with this in mind, how do we grow our friendship with Jesus? By reading God's Word, learning and pondering that which God has allowed to be known about Himself. The more we know of what the Father has revealed, the closer we grow to Christ, who is the very reason we are able to be given the indwelling Holy Spirit which helps us to understand what the Father has revealed about Himself. -A friendship with Jesus involves the whole Trinity, because of course all three Persons of the Godhead work in seamless unity. 

Now, if Jesus' friendship with us is based on His communication to us, why does the first part of John 15:14 state that we are His friends if we obey? Actually, if you think about it, that's related to communication as well. Psalm 66:18 says:

"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me" 

If we are disobeying God, we are sinning, and unconfessed sin hinders our communication with God, as well as our ability and willingness to be communicated to. When I know I've done wrong and try to hide or ignore it, that doesn't put me in a praying frame of mind. In fact, it does the opposite.

There is another factor to this connection of friendship and obedience. When we disobey God's commands, we are acting not like God's friends, but like His enemies. James 4:4 states that "the friendship of the world is enmity with God."  

It takes faith to obey God when the world is so against Him. Notice Abraham's faith, and how God viewed him in the following passage:

"And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God." (James 2:23)

Abraham's faith prompted action, and he obeyed God (in this passage, the context is Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac.) Abraham was in turn called "the Friend of God". 

So we see the "formula", as it were, of friendship with Christ: 

Faith leads to obedience, which opens up communication which builds relationship.

How is your friendship with Jesus? Are you looking to Him in faith, obeying what He has commanded, and communicating with Him through His Word and prayer?