You want God for a Friend!

Needing a friend? God makes a great friend. He really does! When you become His friend, you possess the most valuable thing in the universe—the loyalty of God.

One man who had this was David, and many generations were blessed as a result. There were times when God was inclined to judge the people because of their sinfulness, but then He would remember His covenant with David and relent. God basically said to the people, “The only reason you’re being blessed right now is because of my loyalty to David.”

God honored His loyalty to Abraham in the same way. God told successive generations that He would be with them and bless them specifically because He was maintaining His loyalty to His friend, Abraham. The point here is, when God is loyal to you, He gives you as spiritual inheritance in every successive generation.

There’s one story in particular about Abraham that demonstrates God’s unusual loyalty to His friends. It actually happened at a time when his name was Abram. Abram was afraid that the king of the land, Abimelech, would see how beautiful his wife was and kill him in order to marry her. So Abram told his wife, Sarai, that she should clain to be his sister in order to preserve his life, which Sarai agreed to do. When Abimelech laid eyes on her and heard she was Abram’s sister, he immediately took her into his house and began preparations to bring her into his harem.

But God came to Abimilech in a dream and said, “You’re a dead man—you’ve taken another man’s wife into your house.”

Abimilech replies, “Lord, is it Your practice to go around killing entire nations of righteous people? I haven’t so much as touched the woman.”

The Lord said, “You’re dead.”

Abimelech immediately remonstrated, “But Lord, he told me she was his sister, and she herself said the same thing.”

The Lord said, “You’re dead.”

Abimilech came back, “Lord, I did this in total integrity and with innocent hands!”

“Yes I know,” cam the answer. “But the man’s a prophet. So restore his wife to him, or you shall surely die, along with all who are yours.”

In my mind I’m thinking, “Lord, aren’t You being a little hard on Abimelech? I mean, Abram is the one who has blown it here. Abram is the one who has lied and cowered in fear. Abimilech is the good guy in the story. SO why did You come down so hard on Abimelech?”

I can imagine the Lord’s answer, “Because Abram is my friend. I know him, and he knows Me. I always stick by My friends.”

God was loyal to Abram even when Abram was wrong.

If this is the kind of loyalty that flows in God’s heart, then I want Him to be loyal to me, too. Because I need a God who will be my Friend even when I make foolish mistakes (which is often enough).

This is the God who has won my loyalties.


*From the book, "LOYALTY" by Bob Sorge