I’m continuing the series on: How God Sees Us, which commenced here.
“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).
What is a friend?
A friend is someone who cares about you, who is interested in your life, who wants the best for you, who supports you in difficult times, and makes sacrifices of time and effort to be with you. This makes Jesus the best friend we will ever have.
As our adult children get older, we find our relationship changes and they become more like friends. They will always be our children but now we can discuss things with them as adults. Hopefully we can get to the point of not always trying to influence them to our way of thinking, rather we can listen to them objectively and treat them like friends.
Jesus has chosen to be our friend. He wants us to know his business, to know his heart, to know his plans. His desire is not to dominate us or manipulate us but to treat us like friends. So if Jesus has chosen us to be his friend, how do we reciprocate and act like his friend?
We draw near to him and be totally honest with him. That’s why we can tell him our doubts and our struggles with faith. Jesus knows what’s on our minds, but sharing it with him helps us. Sometimes, even writing it down helps because it clarifies our thoughts. We have the assurance that Jesus cares about us and is interested in even the small issues of our life.
Some years ago, when we were on long service leave, Ross and I enjoyed a very yummy meal at a steak house. The restaurant was part of a larger establishment, which included accommodation, and a couple of eating places. The steak we ordered was “on special” and came with vegetables, including a baked potato (which is, my favorite way of eating potatoes), all for a very reasonable price.
So the next night, we decided to return to the same restaurant and have exactly the same meal. All went well until the waitress brought the meals to the table. There were no potatoes! We debated for a few minutes about whether we should bother the waitress about such a small thing, but since I really like baked potatoes, we did. The waitress headed for the kitchen, but before she even got there, the manager of the entire establishment was standing at our table, saying: “What’s the problem?”
He partially overheard our conversation with the waitress and realized something was wrong. He immediately went to the kitchen, and returned shortly with our potatoes. Given the choice, we wouldn’t have considered bothering the boss with our small potato problem, but he didn’t seem to mind. He seemed happy to help.
In the same way, Jesus is happy to be involved in our small-potato problems, as well as the important issues of our lives. God isn’t too busy with the bigger issues of running the universe to be interested in our day-to-day lives.
I also said a friend is someone who supports you in difficult times, and makes sacrifices of time and effort to be with you. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice to be with us. Max Lucado writes: “On the eve of the cross, Jesus made his decision. He would rather go to hell for you, than go to heaven without you.” Wow!
Jesus has chosen us to be his friend, let’s choose to make him our friend by spending time with him, by sacrificing our time and effort to learn more about him, and by being interested in those things that interest him.
