Over the last two and a half years of grief since Nanci died, I have been sensing deeply the friendship of Jesus. What could be better than for Him to not only love us so much that He would die for us, but to actually call us His friends, and not just servants? That is so beautiful and meaningful to me.

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

“The friendship of Yahweh is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant” (Psalm 25:14).

“For the devious are detestable to the LORD, but he is a friend to the upright” (Proverbs 3:32, CSB).

God looks at us genuinely as both His children and His friends. Incredible!  I share more thoughts in this clip from my interview with Rush Witt, on The Straight to the Heart podcast:

We should never deny or minimize the fact that we are God’s servants; that itself is a high calling. But we should simultaneously affirm the wondrous fact that we are His children and His friends—and also His heirs and delegated rulers of His creation. We are all of those simultaneously.

God can and does love His servants, but He certainly loves wholeheartedly His children and His friends. And He intends to do His best for us, even when that best takes a different form than we might have chosen.

Photo: Unsplash