Discover His heart: He considers us His friends.
What would we do without our friends? We share just about everything with them, confide in them and trust them to keep it close. I would hardly go to a stranger at the grocery store and tell personal information about myself, although I have to admit I’ve had many strangers share more than the basic communication with me at the store. I’ve decided I must have a very generic face and strangers feel they know me, or perhaps the Lord is setting up opportunities to share His love. Either way, His love and truth are shared.
But with our good friends, we share all the extremes of our lives as well as the mundane little things that only our good friends would care about. Sometimes we share information on our social networks that good friends are hungry to read but casual friends really don’t care about, and that’s okay. We have buttons to handle that for us, like Ignore, Delete, Hide…oops, too much information.
@ John 15
One of the most humbling days of my life was when, as a teenager, I read and understood the weight of John 15:14-15, “You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.” In my mind, I am His servant, but in His mind, I am His friend. Because of the intimate things about Himself that He has shared with us in His Word and in our hearts, He could only be our friend. This is NOT grocery store-sharing kind of stuff. He has shared everything His Father has told Him – amazing! This is an intimate relationship like no other.
Of course, the if clause is included in our friendship with the Lord, but it has nothing to do with His love for us because that is unconditional. However, if we want to be His friend, there is a condition to be met. “You are my friends if you do what I command… You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit…” (14,16) We read in I John 4:14 that He loved us first and died for us (John 3:16), and this is what makes our friendship possible – He chose us.
We either accept or reject His offer of salvation, friendship and all that goes with it, and with our acceptance comes responsibility, as with any good friendship. Our obedience to the Lord keeps that friendship alive as does our commitment to cultivating it through our love for one another. “This is my command: Love each other.” (17) If we’re going to be intimate friends with the Lord, we want to love and appreciate all His other friends as well, and, thankfully, God will help us do that. Friends forever!
The realization that Jesus is my friend carries me through moments when earthly friends are not close by me, and when without Him, I would feel so very alone. When my friends are in need, I drop everything else to help them, and my friend Jesus is even more available to me than that. He’s as close as the mention of His name. I listen to the advice my friends give because I know they have my best interests at heart. Even more so, my friend Jesus gives only the very best advice and direction for my life, and He can be trusted.
Moving Forward: I am a servant of God, willing to do all that He commands, but I know that I’m also His friend. I want to be the best friend I can possibly be.
Tomorrow @ Titus
Phyllis Benigas 