Grasping the Friendship
Grasping the Friendship
No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father (John 15:13-15).
Jesus refers to His disciples as friends in the above verses. I believe that friendship with Christ is something that many believers have a hard time grasping. Maybe it’s because they’ve had negative experiences or the thought of friendship with a Holy God is just too informal.
Phillipps Brooks, an Episcopalian pastor in the 1800s is most noted for authoring O Little Town of Bethlehem. However, his following quote contains a depth that when grasped, will challenge one into a blessed friendship with God.
“The great danger facing all of us...is not that we shall make an absolute failure of life, nor that we shall fall into outright viciousness, nor that we shall be terribly unhappy, nor that we shall feel [that] life has no meaning at all – not these things. The danger is that we may fail to perceive life's greatest meaning, fall short of its highest good, miss its deepest and most abiding happiness, be unable to tender the most needed service, be unconscious of life ablaze with the light of the Presence of God – and be content to have it so – that is the danger. That someday we may wake up and find that always we have been busy with husks and trappings of life and have really missed life itself. For life without God, to one who has known the richness and joy of life with Him, is unthinkable, impossible. That is what one prays one's friends may be spared – satisfaction with a life that falls short of the best, that has in it no tingle or thrill that comes from a friendship with the Father.”
How many people’s faith has no tingle or thrill that comes from a friendship with God? A good friend is one who knows you so well that you can be yourself. They know your shortcomings and they know your strengths. They understand you like no one else. They know how you think and what you will do given certain circumstances. They will weep with your struggles and rejoice with your successes. They will challenge you when you are wrong because they care about you. You know they are there for you and with you.
That is the kind of friendship Jesus is talking about. It’s a friendship that will even lay down His life for you and actually has. You can fail, but He still wants to be with you. In fact, He wants you to experience the richness and joy of life with Him. He wants to direct you to life’s greatest meaning; to life’s deepest and most abiding happiness.
He is your friend. Use this summer time to get to know Him more. Go for friendship walks with Jesus. Look for the beauty of His creation. Let His Word dwell in you. Let His presence set your life ablaze. The glory of His light will bless you.
In Friendship, Pastor Tim