We turn today to the topic of friendship as it relates to God. It’s a tough discussion to have primarily because so few people these days have relationships that resemble friendship. In a world of “one-click” friends we can hardly appreciate the earth shattering significance of God choosing to offer us His royal hand of fellowship. Day after day God makes us this generous offer and day after day we are too tired or too busy or too stupid to accept. How foolish can we be? Yet, is not such the sorry state of our human heart? to be foolish? to throw away the life giving medicine? to hide from the light and seek solace in the darkness?
Consider my brother, my sister what is before us. Let’s remove right away a major misunderstanding that friendship with God is simply a gift. Such a thing as a gift of friendship does not exist. A gift is given without the expectation of any sort of return. Yet we somehow have gotten into our heads that God simply offers us this grand gift of friendship with Himself. By using the word gift we subtly allows ourselves to think that God makes us an offer without expecting anything in return. Surely friends will give gifts to each other but both the Old and New Testaments speak to what is required of us to participate in divine friendship.
Psalm 25:14 The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.
and later in the words of Jesus,
John 15:14 You are my friend if you do what I command.
To be sure humanity is the primary beneficiary of this friendship but to imagine that I can simply accept God’s friendship like I accept a pay-check is woefully ignorant. In any good friendship there is give and take of time, emotions, ideas, and resources. These transactions of the often immaterial and unmeasurable aspects of life rarely follow rules and rarely happen the same way twice. Today you need a hundred bucks, tomorrow I need someone to send me an encouraging song, the day after we need to brainstorm ideas for paying off our students loans. The pleasure and the pain of relationships are the result of them never being the same twice. A ship can make the passage from New York to London a hundred times and will never sail on the same wave. Friendship will not be confined to a mold and rarely can it even be confined to a pattern. Even God who remains the same, yesterday, today and forever can only be so specific as to say, “fear me” and “obey my commands” As to the type of fear and the means of obedience, that will depend on the individual and circumstances.
Have you considered the two way nature of any good friendship? Firstly are you responding to God as He has instructed. Do you obey in any sense? Do you fear in any sense? Surely your fear may manifest itself differently than mine, as will your obedience. The master chef tells his cooks to make cupcakes, rarely will a cupcake turn out just the same as another, but who complains so long as it is a good cupcakes? Secondly and as a way of testing whether we are fearing and obeying correctly; does God respond? As we share with Him our hopes, our dreams, our fears and as we give Him our service, our obedience and our trust does He respond by sharing with us His hopes, his plans, his ideas? Has He told you what it would look like for His Kingdom to come and reign in your life? in your family, in your neighborhood, school or country? Are we looking for such a response? If not we must begin for until the sharing of such things is established the circle of relationship will remain broken. God,is amazingly capable of purifying all the garbage of our lives and turning it into something lovely. It functions in a circle.... 
To live as friends of God and not just friends but to actually live as any sort of useful Christian at all requires intentional intensive attention to how He responds. Things are no longer created nor destroyed they simply change forms right? Friendship with God is what transforms the pitiful human animal into the glorious, eternal son of God. History does not know anyone comparable to those whom God has called friends. The generals and kings of Abraham's day paid him tribute and called Him blessed. The Pharaoh of Egypt knelt before Jacob and received the old saints blessing. Moses who spoke with God face to face shown with His glory and His enemies could not stand before Him.
Brother, sister we have been called into a glorious promise. We have been offered the ultimate friendship with the Ultimate reality, the Fountain of Facthood who designs the snowflakes and conducts the thunderstorm, He gives heat to flame and guides the rivers on their paths to the sea. None can stand before His power and all will worship before before His throne.
Let us consider our ways and be wise. All has not been heard but in light of our limited understanding let’s each of us fear God and keep His commandments until the day breaths and the shadows flee away.