Relationship building time. Have you ever consider this? That when you pray, when you take the time to take your eyes off your world and yourself and place it on the Lord that you are building on your relationship with Him.?! And how cool is that!!! Or don’t you think that we should try and build a relationship with the Lord? That somehow that thinking is disrespectful? Why? Isn’t He your Father and your elder brother (joint heir)?
In one place in scripture Jesus tells His disciples that He calls them ‘friend’. Google states it this way:
“When Jesus tells his disciples, “You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:14 ), the components of association, loyalty, and affection all appear. If one can be a friend of God or of God’s Son, this friendship can extend as well to others who are also friends of God.”
John 15:12-16
“12 This is My commandment, that you [a]love and unselfishly seek the best for one another, just as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you keep on doing what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you [My] friends, because I have revealed to you everything that I have heard from My Father. 16 You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed and placed and purposefully planted you, so that you would go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit will remain and be lasting, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name [as My representative] He may give to you.”
If you want to build your relationship with the Lord, look at not just that Jesus called His disciples ‘friends’ but what this means, how it came about, and what occurs as a result of this ‘status’. Probably the first question is not so much that doing so is not what the Lord wants as it is that you haven’t decided that you want this?
What kind of relationship would the Lord want? Scripture has the answer. Part of it is found in the above reference – verse 15. Also, in Hosea, repeated in Matthew we see how the Lord views relationship with us>
Hosea 6:6
“For I desire and delight in [steadfast] loyalty [faithfulness in the covenant relationship], rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” [AMP]
“I’m after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.” (MSG]
This message is repeated in Matthew 9:13
“13 Go and learn what this [Scripture] means: ‘I desire compassion [for those in distress], and not [animal] sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call [to repentance] the [self-proclaimed] righteous [who see no need to change], but sinners [those who recognize their sin and actively seek forgiveness].”
Just these 2 scriptures confirm the kind of relationship that the Lord seeks from us. He does want a relationship with us but He is also telling us what He isn’t wanting. But there are others that demonstrate His Love for us and His desire to be with us. Genesis 1:26, Deuteronomy 31:8, Hebrews 13:5, Isaiah 49:16, Jeremiah 13:5 are only a few of the verses that tell us how the Creator of the Universe, our Triune God looks at us. Since the beginning He has offered relationship:
” Behold, I stand at the door [of the church] and continually knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him (restore him), and he with Me.” [Revelations 3:20]
What more do you need to know about God’s attitude toward relationship. It is always your choice to choose….
