Praying to God as a Friend

We are accustomed to think of going to God as to a father, in the spirit of a child, to tell him of our troubles, and to ask help from him in our needs; and it ordinarily seems to us as if there could be no closer, or dearer relation than this between God and ourselves. But we have a right to aspire to a yet nearer and more intimate relation with God than a child, as a child, can have with a father as a father, — and that is the relation of friend to friend. The highest and most sacred relation in which a man can stand toward God is that of a friend; and that relation, which is open to all of us, is recognized so rarely!

It is a crowning glory of the religion of the Bible — the one true religion — that it opens the possibility of a friendship with God. Other religions, in their imperfect-Prayer

‘ness at the best, teach men to fear the. gods, and even to have a hope of serving the gods; but only the religion of the Bible gives the conception of God as the friend of those who will lovingly trust themselves to him, and as welcoming their friendship. In the universal prayer-cry of men, terror or despair seems to be a prompting cause, where there is no love or trust. Many will cry out to God, or to the gods, to let them utterly alone, or to spare them from harm, who never think of seeking divine communion or fellowship with a heavenly Friend.

In the early history of the race God tried in vain to win men to himself in willing trust; but they stood aloof from him, and would not believe that he was as loving as he claimed to be. By and by, in his effort to disclose his spirit and purposes to men, he took one man out of an idolatrous nation, and, as it were, put his arm about him, and drew him to himself, asking him if he would let him be his friend. And pb aac b= Punk’

Praying to God as a Friend

Abraham believed God, and yielded himself to God in the spirit of a friend; and that was all that God asked of him. So God counted that loving trust of Abraham as evidence of Abraham’s friendship, “and he was called the Friend of God.” Abraham “the friend” thus became the father of the faithful, and to this day the dearest children of God are those who count God their friend, and who are willing to live as friends of God, being, through their loving faith in God as their friend, the children of faithful Abraham — God’s friend. When Jesus Christ came into this world as the manifestation of God’s love as a friend, he called to himself those who were willing to love and to trust him; and before he left them he told them that he counted them his friends, and he wanted them to trust him as their friend. “Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you,” he said. And so, in the Old Testament and the New, the highest, closest, and most sacred relation between 123

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God and God’s dear ones is that of friendship.

What comfort in going to God in prayer as to a friend! It is so different from going to him as to a sovereign. It is different even from going to him as to a father. It is not that God has ceased to be both sovereign and father to him who approaches him; but it is that, while sovereign and father, he is above all a friend. A subject who realizes that his sovereign is his personal friend, approaches his sovereign as a friend rather than as a sovereign. And when a son has come to count his father as his best friend, that son merges his thought of his father in the higher and holier thought of him as his friend. This truth may give us a suggestion of how God loves to have us come to him in prayer, and how we are privileged to pray to him.

In a true friendship, each friend is more interested in his friend than in himself. His thought is not of what his friendship Praying to God as a Friend

demands of him, but of what it permits him to do and to be for-his friend. The extremist claims of his friendship are counted by him, not tasks, but privileges. There is no room for selfishness in its fullest exercise. Yet there is a joy in the communion and intercourse of friendship. See how this showed itself in the dealings of God with Abraham, and in the ways of Abraham with God.

When God was to execute judgment in the home of the kinsman of Abraham, he said, “Shall I hide from Abraham that which I do?” God’s friendship forbade such concealment, and he made known to Abraham his purpose concerning Sodom, At once Abraham recognized and responded to this proof of friendship, and his chief thought was of whether it would be well for God’s reputation for him to do as he purposed. “Wilt thou consume the righteous with the wicked?” he asked. “That be far from thee: shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” On this Prayer

basis his prayer went up to God repeatedly. He prayed as a friend to a friend, freely and trustfully. Of course, such praying was welcomed and approved by God.

Again, when Israel incurred God’s judgment by idolatry in the wilderness, Moses prayed as a friend toa friend. He asked God not to blot out Israel as a people, lest God himself should be misjudged among the nations. “Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, saying, For evil did he bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains?” Moses asked that he himself might die, instead of the people, and thereby God be an avenger of evil without suffering in his repute as a covenant-keeping God. “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin!” he cried. “Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin — ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.” This prayer God heard and answered, because it was a prayer of friendship. And such praying is always acceptable to God.

Praying to God as a Friend

What a privilege thus to pray to God as toa friend! To go to him in loving trust, interested in his cause, and sure of his being interested in us and our welfare; to tell him of our needs and our trials; to ask his counsel and help, and to commit our case and cause to him with never a doubt or a fear! Such praying may be ours. We have no right to come short of it.. God is the friend of whoever will accept his friendship; and all that he was to Abraham he will be to us, if we will but trust him as Abraham trusted.

“A Friend in sorest need,
Of kindest word and deed, —

And, best of all, a Friend Whose love flows on and on, and knows no end.”

This privilege we often fail to improve, and it is to our shame that we do so. If we realized always that God is our friend, we should be readier to bear ourselves toward him as his friends. And this attitude on our part is an unfailing duty. In

coming to God as a friend, our prayer 127

pee ‘Cone eee me coy Pend eke to offend: ‘ In friendship first, I think, if that agree ae i Which I intend, Unto my friend’s intent and er I would not use a friend as I use thee.

“If any touch my friend or his good name,

It is my honor and my love to free His blasted fame See From the least spot or thought of blame. cee I could not use a friend as I use thee.

“When that my friend pretendeth to a place, I quit my interest, and leave it free; But when thy grace Sues for my heart, I thee displace; Nor would I use a friend as I use thee.”