What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Do you have a friend or maybe more than one friend that you are completely yourself with? Your time together is easy, comfortable and joyful. They know your quirky ways, your faults, your dreams, your desires and your fears but love you anyway. You are excited to think of spending time with this type of friend. You are able to share the real stuff of life and also able to laugh together. You are able to share in joys and successes along with crying through heart breaks and disappointments. You are never self-conscious with one another.
I am blessed to have a couple of these friends in my life. One of them gave me a small book titled, One-Minute Prayers to Start Your Day. In my busy life, I find myself turning to this book often for a quick moment with God. In the front of the book my friend wrote, “I thank God for you and for our friendship, no matter how close or far we are from one another. I hope you find this book filled with encouragement, uplifting and affirming thoughts. May God bless you and draw you closer to Him each and every day.” Each time I use this small book of prayers I am reminded of my friend, our deep friendship and how important this friendship is to me. We have a wonderful friendship that we share here on earth.
Our earthly friendships are necessary and are important. We need them but we need an even deeper, heavenly friendship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We invest time, place priority on and put effort into our earthly friendships. Are we putting that same effort into our relationship (friendship) with Jesus? He desires to have a deep relationship with us. In John 15:13-15 Jesus says “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” We have to invest time, place a high priority on and put effort into our relationship with Jesus. This means we need to spend time talking with Him, listening to Him, learning about Him, and reading His Word. We do all of these things to build earthly relationships but we don’t always put the same effort into our heavenly relationship.
One of the short prayers in the book from my friend reads:
“Lord, I know that in Your presence, You offer a friendship as vulnerable and joyful as this earthly one. I’m ashamed to say that I have forgotten this at times and have entered into Your presence like a scolded child rather than a person intending to experience the pleasures of being known and loved and cherished. You carve out the path of my days through the history of time and experience. Help me step into the joy as well. And may I learn to rush into Your presence with great expectations for contentment and lasting relationship.”
Take the time to build a strong, intimate and comfortable relationship with Jesus. He is concerned with helping us in ways we truly need and loving us unconditionally. That is the reason Jesus is our perfect friend!
