God Wants Us to be Friends!

Friendships…. Sitting here writing this brings me into such deep thoughts about the many, many friendships and various types of relationships I’ve had over the years of my life. I always thought of myself as this amazing friend to people, and I do think I’m a good friend, but so many times it’s come at a price before…a price that the other person never really knew they had to pay. I always felt a special drawing towards someone I wanted to be friends with, so I would, and still do, pursue and initiate a relationship with that person. I would write them notes, go out of my way for them and try to hang out with them as much as I possibly could. I would basically win this person over just by being overly nice to them. We’d become friends and have great times together, but the problem was that I would have certain expectations of them. Just last year God brought it to my heart that these friendships were yes, given to me by Him, but I seemed to manipulate them the way that I wanted them to go. I won that person over with all of my “giving” but what I really wanted in return was the feelings and generosity to be reciprocated. Because of a void in my life, I deeply yearned for their affection and approval. I cared more about what that person thought of me and being appreciated by them rather than being fully satisfied with what my Father thought of me. I cared more about pleasing that friend than I did about pleasing God. If they were coming over to my house, I’d make sure I had it looking the best I could for them, because I cared too much about what they thought of me. After all, I should be on top of everything, right? I guess my point is this: I need to be in a relationship/friendship like Jesus is in a relationship with me. Jesus is the ultimate friend. He loved me so much that He laid down HIS life for me…and expected nothing in return. That’s what true friendship is. It’s giving of yourself to be a blessing and an encouragement to the other person. It’s laying down your life for the other. When you lay down your life, you give away all rights to it. You die to yourself and what you want, and, like scripture says, “you consider others better than yourself.” I seemed to get that only halfway right because I was trying to bless the other person, however many times I cared more about receiving a blessing in return.
The enemy attempts at all costs to ruin relationships. Insecurity, even now, tries to creep into my heart when a friend doesn’t do something the way that I might. In my mind I constantly am hearing “that person doesn’t really want to be around you, that’s why they NEVER call…” or I’ll think to myself “they must not really like hanging out because they never seem to initiate or try to get together with me…I’m always the one asking!” All of these types of thoughts are straight from the devil because they are all focused on ME, and what’s in it for me. These are not outward focused, uplifting thoughts at all, but they always try to creep in and ruin a good relationship. All I know is that when I start thinking this way I start to feel depressed and hurt I start to feel angry at the other person, even when they didn’t do anything to me! I have to constantly remind myself that this person is a gift from God and they don’t owe me anything. It’s imperative to fight these thoughts from the enemy with the truth of God’s word. I need to focus on being the absolute best friend that I can be and trust God to take care of the rest. One of my favorite scriptures is Luke 6:38—“Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” All I know is the more I give in every area of my life, including my friendships, the more will be measured back to me! How exciting is that! Trusting God is so important. He is your ultimate best friend, and He is the only one we can really expect things from. He is always faithful and will never let you down…ever.
Friendship to me is nothing at all to be taken lightly. I believe that God places some people in our lives to be “good friends,” but there are others that are meant to be intimate friends…friends that we have covenant relationship with. Friends we lay down our lives for and encourage as much as possible. Friends we need to be there for when they call and need prayer at 2 in the morning. Friends who will tell you when you’re not living out God’s best for you, and won’t be afraid to hurt your feelings sometimes. These types of friends are truly gifts from God and are very few and far between, although they are definitely out there. I believe that God has this type of friendship for everyone…some probably just miss it for various reasons. Many times we are afraid of being vulnerable around others. We fear that if the person gets to know the “real me” they won’t really like me. This fear keeps us from experiencing great relationships… especially in the world we live in today. We are all so busy and focused on careers and just making ends meet that we don’t make the time to be with others and really get to know one another. We are so busy updating our facebook status, checking email, watching a thousand different channels or rushing the kids to soccer practice that we simply leave the friends out. Even the relationships in our immediate families are taking a hit with all the things we have going on these days. Where sitting around a dinner table every night was a main part of the day not too many years ago, now dinner is eaten many days of the week on the way home from somewhere else.
Basically, my point is this…God wants us to be friends…and not just friends, but intimate friends who genuinely love each other and are committed to one another. God wants us to be like Jesus and lay down our lives for each other…God wants us to give freely of ourselves, not expecting anything in return, and not being afraid of being rejected. That’s exactly what Jesus did, and still does…every single moment of every single day…Don’t be afraid to give part of your heart to someone that God gives to you…remember, “give and it WILL be given to you!” Most importantly, God wants you to be this type of intimate friend with Him first!

Banqueting with Jesus

Banqueting with Jesus…

God loves us more than we can imagine. He is always extending an invitation to us to be with Him. He wants us to join him in fulfilling his purposes around this world. He wants us to give of ourselves and reach out to others. He wants us to lay our life down and follow Him at all costs.
Today I was reading Luke 14 about the parable of the Great Banquet. A man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests to attend. He sent his servant out to tell those who had been invited at the time of the banquet, and every single one he invited made some kind of excuse as to why they couldn’t come. One said “I have to go see the field I just bought, so please excuse me.” Another replied “I just got married, so I can’t come.” Every one who received the invite refused because of other things they were doing they considered more important. The man then told the servant “just go out and invite everyone…the poor in the streets and alleys, the lame, the crippled, and the blind.” They all came and there was still room, so they went to the fields and country and invited those people, too. His house was now full, and the banquet was served. The man then said to his servant “Not one of those men who were invited will get even a taste of my banquet.”
This really made me contemplate many things in my life today. This is a parable referring to Jesus inviting us to His banquet table to partake of a feast with Him. It’s kind of eye-opening to me because the last thing I want is Jesus to invite me to be a part of Him and his plans and me say, “no thanks, God, I have too much going on in my life right now to come be with you.” This banquet represents our relationship with the Almighty. What an amazing privilege it is to be invited to HIS table…the one who gave his life for me. What a devastation it is to ever have anything more important than our relationship with Him and miss out. He’s simply asking us to dine with him. To share in an amazing feast that we don’t even have to prepare! He wants our company and our presence with Him. He loves us so much to prepare this feast for us, and for us to have any excuse is absolutely crazy. The creator is inviting us to an eternal, amazingly fulfilling relationship with Him and we so often turn him down.
This can also be applied to our everyday life as well. How many times has God said “come be with me” and we say, “sorry, God, I have a test to study for,” or “I have my job to do” or even “I really want to watch this tv show tonight, God, so you’ll have to wait.” So often we think, “God will get over it…he’s big enough He’ll be there tomorrow when I have extra time.” Those are all true things, but the Lord knows our hearts. What an amazing invitation we’ve received to be in an intimate relationship with our creator, father, and best friend. How many times has He come to you and whispered to you “go bless that person…they really need a friend right now.” How have you responded? “Well, God, they might reject me or think I’m weird…”or “I really don’t have time to do that right now…I’m on my way home and I’m really tired!”
All I know is when the father invites me to HIS banquet, I don’t want to reject that invitation for ANY reason. He even says in the end that those who he invited who turned him down will never get to taste of his banquet. My question to you is this..What in this world could possibly be better than what God has to offer? What could be better than free, amazing, food and the best fellowship ever?
Let’s choose today to partake of the banquet…even if the invitation comes at a time that we don’t think fits our schedule. After all, God is the one directing our steps, so let’s follow Him!…

Wow,..just wow...

Today has been a truly amazing day.  Nothing majorly spectacular happened...no fireworks, no amazing things, but God truly has blessed me beyond belief.  Sometimes his blessings and love are just so great that I can't contain it.  Sometimes being in His presence just floors me, and nothing else really matters anymore.  All of the ways I fall short in life, all of the problems, fears, concerns that I have take a backseat to the King of kings, and my Best Friend.  Spending time with Him simply continues to emphasize in my life that there is nothing at all of greater importance than to simply follow Christ.  Nothing else really matters, especially when it comes to eternity.  All of our efforts here on earth will simply fade away, but having a relationship with Jesus, loving Him, serving Him, and just being with him will last forever.
Something that I truly love to do is to share Christ's love with other people.  The bible says that "it is better to give than to receive" and this couldn't be more true.  I had a couple of opportunities to give of myself today, and I am so full of God's love tonight! I've been smiling all day long just thinking about what God has done for me and what He constantly does on a daily basis.  It is so fun to encourage others and show them just how much God is in love with them.  What a blessing it is to bless other people...that's one reason we're here, right? 
So many times we  forget how much God, the creator of the UNIVERSE (which is still expanding, by the way) is deeply and passionately in love with us! He loves me, so why does it matter what anyone else thinks or does?  He loves me, and that makes me confident in who he has made me to be.  I am his, I am bought at a price, and his love for me is priceless.
Don't you see that God loves you and you are priceless?  He wants you to succeed in life, be healthy, whole and full to overflowing in EVERY single part of your life! No exceptions! He wants our relationships to flourish, our families, our jobs,  our health, and, yes, even our finances. He loves us that much!
So, just a quick thought...Never, ever forget how much God loves you and loves to be in your presence.  We truly are NEVER alone.

Prepare the way!

Not too long ago while I was out and about, I noticed on the back of someones shirt the verse Isaiah 40:31, so I thought I'd look the passage up when I got to my bible.  I knew that it was talking about rising up on wings like eagles, but I wanted to read the whole chapter.  As I started reading, something really grabbed my attention.  In verse 3 of that same chapter it quotes the same thing that the New Testament quotes concerning John the Baptist in relation to the arrival of Jesus. Isaiah, though, says it a little differently...so slight, it's not really easy to catch. Isaiah 40:3 states:

³ A voice of one calling:

“In the wilderness prepare

   the way for the LORD;

make straight in the desert

   a highway for our God.

^{I had always read that scripture totally different.  The comma or colon in the New Testament is placed after wilderness, so it would read "a voice calling in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord."}

^{This particular passage phrases it a little differently which really ministered to me deeply when I read it... "In the desert prepare the way of the Lord."  Wow...what a difference a comma can make!}

 

^{We've been going through some tough times lately with different areas of our lives and this passage really struck me.  As we're IN the desert, we should prepare the way of the Lord. We should make straight paths for him.  As we're IN the desert we should expect Him to come by preparing ourselves and being ready for His arrival.  As we're IN financial difficulty, we should continue to do what God's called us to do...spend wisely, budget, and most importantly, give.  As we're IN need of encouragement, we should prepare the way of the Lord by reaching out to others and lifting them up.  As we're IN distress, we shouldn't give up on our God for HE is Faithful. We're preparing the way for the Lord to come, even when we don't see it in the present.  He's on his way, that's for sure, so getting ready for him shows that we trust Him.  Speaking the truth of His word IN our desert times is preparing our hearts to receive what He has in store for us.  It's almost as if it's a test...He wants to see how we'll respond.  Will we choose to prepare the way for HIM during these times, or will we falter and complain.  Will we believe and declare the promise in Malachi that says if we tithe "the floodgates will be open with so much blessing that we won't even have room to contain it," even if our bank account looks otherwise?  Will we choose to believe that God has a plan to get us OUT of the desert, or will we just be miserable?  I believe that complaining and murmuring keeps us in those desert times much longer than we should be.
Oh, but read on...in verse 4 listen to the amazing promises for us if we simply prepare the way:}
Every valley shall be raised up,
   every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
   the rugged places a plain.
⁵ And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
   and all people will see it together.
            For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

WOW!  no more mountains or valleys ahead of us! It's level ground! No more rugged places and to top it off, God's glory is revealed. He spoke this, so it is absolutely true!
^{So, it's our choice...when we're in the desert we can choose to prepare the way for the Lord to come, or we can complain and doubt the truth of what God says.  I know it can be hard when you don't see Him coming, but when you're in the desert and it feels and looks as if everything is drying up, choose to prepare the way of the Lord.  He's on HIS way!!}

     Last night I went into work at the Alexander Family YMCA and I heard some news that was saddening..one of our regular members had passed away a few days earlier.  This was a man that I'd had the opportunity to see most days that I worked, and he always greeted me with a smile.  He was an elderly man, in his eighties, and he always seemed to be struggling just to make it there.  When I heard about his death, it really saddened me and  made me think.  I never really knew this man, "Mac" as he was called, but I had the chance to greet him on many occasions.  The question that I keep wrestling with now is, where is he?  I don't know where exactly he stood with the Lord, and I never had an opportunity to ask. 
     Hearing about his death made me realize how important it is to be a light to the world, not only with our actions but with our words as well.  People need to hear how amazing Jesus is and what He has done for them.  They need to HEAR the good news so they know why we are the way we are!  It's great to serve others with our actions, to bless them and love on them, but that simply isn't enough.  They won't hear about the good news simply through what we do.  Our actions simply back up what we believe on the inside (at least we hope they do!) People won't "magically" figure out the gospel simply from actions alone, however.  They won't understand the truth about Jesus just because we opened the door for them or smiled.  They need to be told by our actions as well as our words! 
     1 Peter 3:15-16 says: "¹⁵ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander."
     We always need to have an answer...we need to be prepared at all times, because you never know when you'll be called on by God to tell someone about Jesus...the more you're ready, the more you'll be called! Lord, send me!!