“I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn’t confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.” - John 15:15
How precious are Christian friendships! While we may have many kinds of friends in many different stages and walks of life, friendships with other Christian women can prove to be the most precious because we can share a spiritual bond. We are in tune with each other when we talk about Jesus.
When Jesus talked to his disciples near the end of his life, he explained that they were more than simply followers or servants; they were friends: “I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn’t confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me” (John 15:15). That shared knowledge of the Father gave Jesus and the disciples a special depth of friendship.
An essential component of Christian friendship is sharing what we’re learning from our heavenly Father about life’s experiences. There is nothing that brings you closer to your Christian friends than sharing how God is a comfort in a bereavement you didn’t expect, a divorce you didn’t want, or a sickness you weren’t anticipating. Life’s lessons learned at the foot of the cross make for deep friendships! Exchanging mutual knowledge of Jesus not only gives you a common focus, it gives you shared secrets to treasure. If your friendships are lacking depth and appear shallow and trivial, try sharing a lesson you are learning about your heavenly Father. If you initiate it, you and your friend will probably soon be chatting away. The time you spend together with your friend will never be time enough!
For Further Study: John 15:1-17
Excerpted from The One Year Devotions for Women, Copyright ©2000 by Jill Briscoe. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
For more from Jill Briscoe, please visit TellingtheTruth.org.
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