John 3:12-16 “This is what I tell you to do: Love each other just as I have loved you. No one can have greater Love than to give his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I tell you. I do not call you servants that I own anymore. A servant does not know what his owner is doing. I call you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from My Father. You have not chosen Me, I have chosen you. I have set you apart for the work of bringing in fruit. Your fruit should last. And whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you.”
The greatest moments of my life have been those precious few times when Jesus answered the cries of my heart and let me know that He heard me beyond all doubt and loved me in spite of my shortcomings. He calls us His friends. These moments are intimate, special, between He and I and between He and you. The Lord knows that I would like to have them every day but it doesn’t work that way. But I am oh so grateful that there are some of those special moments, that special intimacy that fills my heart with love and adoration for Him. Worthy is the Lamb. I find that there is a close correlation between feeling His presence when in prayer and of course, when reading the Word. It’s not the same all of the time, it varies depending on circumstances at my end. These last two or three weeks I have been having a bit of a hard time with infected sinuses. It’s hard to feel at one with God when you are in pain and aren’t getting much sleep. It sure makes me appreciate it when the pain goes away and I actually get a good nights sleep. How fickle I am. And yet He still calls me His friend and loves me.
I know, this little blip is nothing compared to what others are dealing with. I think of a Christian friend who is dealing with ALS, another with stomach cancer and I feel guilty for even asking for relief in my prayers. It just makes me mindful of how open we are to allowing our feelings to affect the way we act. It makes me appreciate and honour the faith and trust of my brothers and sisters who are dealing with much much more than I am.
Sometimes when I am outside at work and I see the sun shining and the blue sky and the earth we stand on and realize that Jesus, who created all that I see, calls me His friend and loves me, it boggles my mind. It’s hard to wrap my mind around it. But it’s true. He created all that we see, He came to this earth and witnessed to us of the Father, He gave His life for us so that we could be free from the price that sin demands and calls us His friends. And He rose from the dead. Top that puppy!
I long to look in the eyes of Jesus. I’ve experienced the love and Holiness that radiates from God and words are not able to express what it feels like. I can tell you this, nothing can make you want to leave His presence, absolutely nothing (see post entitled Lingering Imperfections – June 25th, 2016). Not only is He our friend but He is our creator and saviour. He gave His life in a horrible death so that we could be at one with our Father and Him and He calls us His friends. He gives us His Holy Spirit to guide and teach us, this is our loving God who tells us He loves us and to love one another. And yet I still do not understand so much.
Did you know that Jesus has promised us that He will allow us to sit with Him on His throne? Try wrapping your mind around that one! This is what a true friend would do, one who truly loves us.
Revelation 3:21 NLV
“I will allow the one who has power and wins to sit with Me on My throne, as I also had power and won and sat down with My Father on His throne.”
Psalm 37:5 is one of my favourite verses in the Bible: “Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.”
God has spared my life so many times. He has forgiven me for so many sins that it is hard to comprehend why. Sometimes He heals and sometimes He doesn’t. I wish I knew why. Sometimes He is so near and other times He feels so distant. I wish I knew why. I find that when He feels distant I resort to remembering the special times, the answers that came when I had no hope, that I didn’t even have a clue about, and I trust. He knows better than I. Someday we will understand. In my gut I think this life that we live on this earth is all about learning to trust in Him. It isn’t always easy, it often is hard, but there is a purpose and there is a reason.
Remember who is our advocate, who is our High Priest, and who has called us. What a wonderful God we serve. Commit, trust and He shall bring it to pass! Blessings!
Filed under: Apologetics, Christian, New Testament, Old Testament, Religion
