“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends....” (John 15:13)
How amazing that the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, the very Son of God, is willing to be our friend.
Our Savior and Redeemer wants to be our friend. Our friend, who loved us so much that He died for us. Our friend who wants us to live in a personal love relationship with Him today, a relationship that His sacrifice made possible. Jesus described that relationship when He pictured Himself as a vine and Hs disciples as branches—it is to be an abiding intimacy.
Jesus lives with us today, willing to be our friend, but we must do our part. We can't be a friend to anyone we don’t know. Nor can we maintain a friendship without effort—spending time and energy. To be His friend, to know Him, we must invest time in His Word and in prayer. Think what we're missing if we don’t.
Lord Jesus, You are our Friend, our high and holy Friend. Help us to never take You for granted, for we ask in Your name. Amen.
But when school is out, vacations are underway, or summer projects take over our free time, we can easily be throw off track, falling away from those habits that seep to keep us spiritually on course. How can we manage a close walk in such a season?
To hear Him speak, our spirits must be in tune with His voice because He doesn’t usually speak audibly. However, He speaks just as clearly through thoughts and that come to mind. That’s why journaling is so important to me. Though God doesn’t speak to me every day, when He does journaling helps me remember what He has said, so that I can respond in writing and keep it for future reference. If I don’t write it down, I won’t remember.
Confession is part of Jesus' model prayer in Matthew 6. Each part of His prayer is important and must be included as part of our prayers, if we want to experience the fullness of the personal relationship with our Lord.