I will not leave you comfortless; I am coming to you.
John 14:18
I remember singing, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so” in Sunday school. Those were my early years of getting to know Jesus as my friend. There was a warmth to the melody in my heart as I sang along in those days. It was the good old days of seeing everybody as friends and neighbors. After all these years this promise has become a solid foundation for my daily walk and growth in my life of faith. I have grown to realize this truth with greater conviction that Jesus loves me and continues to be the voice that speaks to me in times of trouble and tranquility. He will not leave me comfortless or friendless, but continues to shower me with his love and counsel everyday as I seek to do his will.
How many of us see God as a friend? God refers to Abraham as his friend (Isaiah 41:8). Abraham’s love for God endured him to be his friend. Ellicott says, “ The word for "friend" implies loving as well as being loved.” Jesus said the greatest way to show your love for your friends is to die for them. The world often challenges us to compete, dispute, or fight with one another. Do we follow the Ways of the World or the Way of Love?
The hymn “What a friend we have in Jesus” has been a source of comfort and strength for Christians down through the ages. The hymn was originally written by a preacher Joseph Scriven as a poem to comfort his mother in 1855. She was living in Ireland and he had moved to Canada. Scriven himself had met with personal tragedies of his own and in his brokenness he wrote these heartfelt words that comfort us at times when we feel broken, empty or lonely. The hymn has been translated into multiple languages and is an old favorite even today.
If our lives are anchored in Christ, the Holy Spirit will be our refuge and strength against all the hostility we face in our daily lives. Jesus followed the Way of Love for you and me (John 15:13). Jesus calls us his friends, if we follow the way of love for God and one another (John 15:14). Isn’t it comforting and heartening to listen to Jesus saying you are my friends? Listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit as the words teaches and encourages to bear witness to Jesus and his redeeming love. If we love him wont we do what he has asks us to do?
Prayer
Lord Jesus as we enter into the mystery of your love for us during this time of prayer and meditation, comfort and strengthen us through the blessedness and brokenness of our lives as we forge our friendship with you and all those we share our lives with. Amen.
4 comments:
God has given us all that we need! We love God by giving God our Praise and Thanksgiving! We also love God by doing the Word not just reading or praying it, and thereby we build our friendship with Yeshua with a foundation built on a rock! Friendship is manifested not just superficially through words, but by actions mainly. We should be prepared to even suffer persecution and death for the sake of retaining our friendship. We are friends with Yeshua because Yeshua first professed friendship for us. A friendship where Yeshua even died for us! Let us not just sit in our drawing rooms and profess our friendship, let us act, on the ground to verify the truth of our friendship with Yeshua! When we finally come face to face with Yeshua, what deeds of friendship can we show? Praise God!
Bad Traits
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21
Good traits
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22
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Amazing Grace
Paul persecuted the early Christian church in the name of God. As a young man he stood and watched the stoning of Stephen to death (the first Christian martyr - Acts 7:54-60) . But God uses him mightily to be a great witness. Paul is used by the Holy Spirit to write letters to the different churches that he had planted. Even while in prison he wrote letters. If God could transform Paul to be a beacon of light for millions of Christ’s followers, he can do the same for you and me wherever or whatever circumstance we may be.
God is Love. God is patient. God is Amazing, He will transform you and me.
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES - Henri Nouwen
One of the core messages of the Gospel is "Love your enemies." When we're dealing with our own needs, anxieties and fears, we tend to divide the world into enemies and friends. But God showers the rain over the bad as well as the good. God doesn't need to divide the world into those for God and those against God because God loves everyone uniquely and unconditionally. Our God wants us to do the same, but we can only do that if we believe in God's unconditional love for us, and if we are not overly dependent on human affirmation or rejection. We will be able to love our enemies precisely when we no longer need to divide the world into friends and enemies anymore.
To love our enemies is the core message of the Gospel because it is a reflection of the way God loves us.
Prayer For Today
Loving God, fill my heart with the love I need
for those sharing my life-journey with me.
Amen.
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