FRIENDS
First of nine devotions in Lenten Intense Series from Isaiah
73:1-12
Genesis 2:18a: “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the
man to be alone.’”
John 15:13-15: “Greater love has no
one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a
servant does not know his master’s business.
Instead, I have called you friends, for everything I learned from My
father, I have made known to you.”
Jesus
still calls believers friends when we do what He commands. As God’s kids, we acknowledge our
relationship as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Everyone
can classify the people in one’s life as either friend or acquaintance. Facebook uses these groups to its advantage,
urging people to officially “friend” another publically on the Internet. And just as easily, can “unfriend” that
person. Today, people brag, “I have over
five hundred friends on Facebook!”
It’s
easy. As soon as someone requests
another to be “friend,” Facebook offers that person a list of the requested
person’s friends to request being “friend” too. The list grows with each new “friend” offering
up their friends for the requester to “friend” them, as well. New “friends” usually don’t even know one
another! This quickly builds one’s “friend”
circle.
If
we’re honest, real friends can be counted on one hand. True friends focus on the quality of friendships,
rather than the number of friends. Not everyone
we call “friend” will lend us money, listen to our problems, or tell us when
we’re wrong.
Real
friends must love one another sacrificially, serving one another gladly. They value the other’s needs, desires and
personal wants higher than their own.
Agape [a-GOP-aa] love describes sacrificial and unconditional love for a
brother or sister (in Christ).
This
mutual loving relationship is what God intended for all His kids.
This
is how we hope Jesus’ original disciples loved one another. Surly, they loved Jesus, whom Isaiah 53:2
describes: “He grew up before him like a slender shoot, like a root out of dry
ground. He had no beauty or majesty to
attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.”
The
disciples’ love for Jesus would soon be tested.
Jesus
knew beforehand that Judas would betray Him with a kiss. Yet when Judas arrived in Gethsemane with
armed soldiers, Jesus greeted him with, “Friend, do
what you came for.” (Matthew 26:49-50).
That’s
intense!
Take Home Nugget
Only when
believers model Christ’s love for one another can we commit to and motivate our
friends’ spiritual growth. This commitment
allows love, forgiveness and joy to free-flow between friends.
Count
each day as lost that is not used in loving and serving friends.
J.D. Griffith
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