Romans 5:11 - “So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.”

Friendship is one of God’s great gifts to us. There is the richness of strength and joy that comes from friendship with the people he has put into our lives. We need the love and support of others so much. But what makes our life complete is that God himself becomes our greatest Friend. No one understands and loves us more than the Creator of the universe.

…What a gift and blessing is ours that God should call us his friend- that he desires and enabled us to have intimate fellowship with him. But as is the case with all his gifts to us, he asks us to respond, to lean in toward him, not out of compulsion but out of a deep desire for more of him. He will never force us to receive all he has for us but asks us to make a choice in our heart and mind.

The offer is there. God says, “I have made you my friend through Jesus Christ.” Will you walk in that knowledge that God is beside you as your God, your Creator, your Deliverer . . . and your Friend?

Prayer: You are so great and mighty that I am sometimes afraid to call you my Friend. I pray that I will let your affection and kindness to me sink deep into my spirit, O God.
(From Darlene Zschech’s devotional, Revealing Jesus.)

Today let’s also pray for our churches for the Lord to grow us in the relationship he has given us with himself, in intimacy and surrender because of his fierce, enduring love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azcX48TVSqI

-AP