Making friends comes easy for some people and for others it is very difficult. Connecting for some people is always complicated. If making friends or even being a friend is complicated then i encourage you to read on.
Friendships are an aspect of relationships.
What are relationships anyway?
My friend google says they are all about connecting with another.
Relationships are all about connecting, behaviour, mutual respect, friendship, love. Anywhere you find these words, there is relationship.
At the heart of healthy relationships is love, mutual respect and friendship of course their extent and boundary is dependent on the kind of connection.
I think it best to begin with the foundation of all relationships: the author of connections, GOD! Yes, Good relationships begin with Him and are sustained by Him.
Good relationships flow from a relationship with God.
The first and most important relationship in our lives is our connection with our creator, our God, the Lord God almighty. From this connection flows all the other great relationships we will ever need to have. When our relationship with God is as it ought to be, this will be reflected in all other areas of our lives including our connections with others.
From our relationship with God can we get the insight needed to recognise the kind of connections He has positioned in our lives in different seasons of life. These relationships are connected to His purpose for our lives. We get the much needed understanding and wisdom on how to navigate the dynamics of relationships.
Anchor scripture: John 15:13-16
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. (John 15:13-16 NKJV)
- God calls us friends.
No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. (John 15:16)
I believe we should begin by recognising the friend we have in God through Christ. He calls us friend. Christ reveals to us all we need to know from the Father. Real friendship is about sharing lives, talking, and being there for one another. Christ demonstrates how much He is a friend to us when He says He has revealed all He has heard from Abba Father! He is that friend that is withholding nothing from us. He is ready to talk about it all; anything and everything. What a friend!
2. He chose us to be His friends.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you…
I remember my early days in kindergarten or primary or high school, wait even in university , the work place! Basically at each station of life there were always the ‘cool’ people who everyone wants to be friends with. Its goals to be friends with them and they usually fit a certain criteria. When you don’t fit this criteria you are not part of the cool crew. But guess what, God’s friendship is so cool that He chose us in Christ to be His friends. We don’t choose to be His friends, He already chose us to be part of the ultimate cool crew in life here on earth and eternally.
Picture the coolest person already saying you are my friend! He is the initiator of this friendship and relationship.
3. The greatest love and commitment ever
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
What manner of love is this; a friend who takes it to the highest level of commitment.
I need to have committed friends, and I do my best to be a committed friend, but this is next level commitment which in my books certifies that there is no greater friend I will ever find than Christ. A friend who died for me to spend forever with Him, before I even knew Him. He was thinking of me before I ever thought of Him?
This is huge, actually the English vocabulary can’t properly describe the love Christ has for us; Great does not fully describe it.
Stop and ponder on the kind of friendship and relationship available to us in Christ.
Check out video version of this message
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4NWbY5JJQiuDUXk-E5SNmQ