Friendship

12/1/2011

Weather Report From Heaven: Sunny and bright, with an abundance of light and lots of singing and rejoicing.

Bible verse of the Day: John 15:13 " Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."


One of the biggest questions I ponder in my relationship with the Living God is what does He really want or expect from me? This questions can take on many different iterations and lead down many winding paths, depending on what kind of mood I am in at any given time or how I am viewing this question I am asking myself. In other words, through what lens am I viewing this question? I know that He wants me to follow him and to trust him and to love him and I believe that I try to do this to the best of my abilities on most occasions and want to continue to get better at his throughout my life. I realize that there is always room for improvement and I want to do better, be more consistent. Some days I do great and totally feel in harmony with my Lord and Savior, and other days, well not so much. Always it is because me and my love are imperfect, while He and His are always perfect. I guess sometimes I feel as though I just don't measure up, although I know He would never say or think that, just the adversary messing around in his playpen called my mind. But the other day, the answer to the original question of what does God and Jesus want from me became crystal clear after reading a book called " Secrets of the Vine." He wants my friendship most of all. He truly wants me to be his friend and that takes a willingness to spend time with him on a consistent basis. Like any relationship, the more time spent, the better that relationship will grow to be. He is always there and available, so it is incumbent upon me to draw closer and to willingly learn more about him, and in turn He will reveal to me more about Himself. Like any relationship, when you love being with someone, or some thing, you naturally want to spend time with them. You are willing to prioritize that person or thing in your life. I know now that Jesus Christ wants me to be His friend and He wants me to abide in Him, for the Bible tells me so. He is not ever Jealous of me, but He is jealous for me. Why would I not want to invest as much of my time as possible with Him, who is the author of all creation. He plays so many roles in the world and in my life that He is the fountain of wisdom that never grows old or dry out. At any given time, Jesus can be a Witness of truth, a Prophet, an Intercessor, a Warrior, a Priest or a King. He is always all of those things, but He can be any of those things in my life at the exact time that I need Him to be. But the only way I can find out what He is saying to me is to be His friend and to be in continual fellowship with Him. Most people say Love is the key to a healthy relationship and i would certainly agree with that statement, but love without time spent is unfulfilled. I can tell my children I love them, but if I don't spend time with them, they will always wonder in the back of their minds why I am not making them a priority in my life, and hence whether i truly love them. In this life, our actions always speak louder than our words, and we will always be judged not just on what we say, but on what we do. As a mentor of mine once said to me, don't tell me why you don't have time for something, tell me why it's not a priority. We all get the same amount of time in day, but how we spend it is totally up to us and says lot about who we are and what we care about. Can you imagine how Jesus must feel when we choose not to spend time with Him after all He did and continues to do for us? Time together = love. We need to be friends with Christ. Proverbs 17:17 says, " A friend loves at all times," and Christ loves us consistently and wants to be our friend. We can read all the books in the world, go to all the bible studies and attend church every week and we can be left feeling burned out and no closer in our relationship to Christ. But if we take time to be in His presence, alone and aware,present and engaged, our friendship will blossom and fulfill us like no other. That is why in John 15, Jesus implores us to abide in Him, to remain in him and his words to remain in us, so he can be our closest friend. He can protects us, guide us, love us and help us to grow in our faith and in our understanding of who He is in our own individual life. He wants to give us the answers to our dreams and to see us bear much good fruit. But most of all He wants to be our friends. Praise God for the fact that the King of all Kings wants to be my friend. I want to be His as well.