Abiding in God’s Friendship..Craig Denison Ministries

 Abiding in God’s Friendship

Craig Denison Ministries

Weekly Overview: 

The absolute, most important single act of the children of God is making space to encounter our heavenly Father in the secret place. Abiding in God is the foundation on which every other aspect of the Christian life finds success. It establishes roots which enable us to receive all that we need to bear the fruit of the Spirit. It guides us to constant refreshment and revival in God’s presence, thereby supplying and sustaining the abundant life God intends for us. My prayer is that you would be marked by wonderful, satisfying, and fulfilling encounters with the presence of God as we look at John 15:1-17 this week. Make room in your heart and mind to rest in the love of your heavenly Father as we look at the different ways we are to abide in true vine of God.

Scripture:“You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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 15:14-15

Devotional:    

Do you know that God calls you his friend? John 15:14-15 says, “You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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.” As a believer you have gained friendship with a God who exemplifies perfect, unconditional love. You have gained relationship with your Creator whose greatest desire is simply to spend time with you. Allow the love of your heavenly Father to sink in for a minute. Allow the Spirit to reveal to you God’s motives today as we look at what it means for us to abide in the friendship of God.

John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus committed the greatest act of love this world has ever known in laying down his life. And he did so willingly out of his desire for relationship with us. God desired friendship with you to the level that he would send his only Son to die in order to restore what sin had destroyed.

The questions before you today are: are you experiencing the fruits of friendship with Jesus? Are you receiving the satisfaction that comes from abiding in relationship with God? The Holy Spirit’s desire today is to lead you into a greater depth of friendship with your Creator, the one who laid down his own life for your sake. What he asks of you today is to make time to invest in your friendship with him as you would any other relationship. He asks that you would value relationship with him to the level that you would commit time and energy to it. Just as marriage cannot be fruitful or enjoyable without investment from both parties, we must invest in our friendship with God to receive all that relationship with him is designed to bring us.

John 15:14 makes it clear that true friendship with God is following his commands. Jesus has revealed the pathway to abundant life. And he’s led us to that path by laying down his own life that we might have the Holy Spirit working within us. To be friends with Jesus is to choose to lay down our own lives in response to his loving sacrifice. To walk in friendship with God is to choose humility over pride and follow the path set before us in Jesus. We are no longer servants unaware of the plans and will of our master, but friends who have heard, seen, and experienced the truth.

Will you choose friendship with God over the world today? Will you choose to follow the will of the God who laid down his life for yours? Will you walk down the pathway of life today, or will you choose to go your own way? True friendship with God is fully available to you today if you will follow the life-giving commandments of Jesus and make space and time to invest in your relationship with him. Nothing will bring you greater satisfaction than living out of the abundance of friendship with Jesus. Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Open the door of your heart to the God of love today and spend time fellowshipping with him.           

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on your status as a friend of God. Allow Scripture to change your perspective on how God views you and how you should view God.

“You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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 15:14-15

2. Reflect on your own life. What relationships do you invest in over your relationship with God? Who have you made the highest priority? In what ways are you not following the commands of Jesus?

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” John 14:23

3. Repent of any way in which you have valued other relationships over God. Confess any ways in which you have not been following the commands of Jesus and receive the forgiveness of God. Spend time investing in your friendship now. Open the door of your heart and let God come in. Talk with him. Listen to him. Tell him how you feel. Spend time with him as you would another friend. Nothing could be more important than experiencing the abundance of friendship with God available to you in Christ.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20

“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:9

“I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.” Hosea 11:4

The only day we are promised is today. Don’t wait to invest in your relationship with God. Don’t set it aside while you take care of what seems to be more pressing. Loving God is always first priority. Spending time with him is always the most important thing. Choose to be a follower of Jesus who values his commands over any other. Choose his way over your own or the world’s. Walk today with the fruit of friendship with God as your source and guide. If you do, you will experience favor and grace on even the most mundane tasks set before you. You will experience a foundation of love on which you have the grace to follow God wholeheartedly and love others purely and fully. Value friendship with God above all else and experience the abundant life available to you.

Extended Reading: 1 John 1-2

Freedom From Crushing Comparison..ANN SWINDELL

 Freedom From Crushing Comparison

ANN SWINDELL 

“The Lᴏʀᴅ will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lᴏʀᴅ, endures forever.” Psalm 138:8a (ESV)

When my husband and I walked through multiple miscarriages after our firstborn, I became acutely aware that we didn’t fit the mold of other families.

People constantly asked us if we “only” had one child, and I struggled to answer. While my friends were having their third babies, I was struggling with secondary infertility.

One of my closest friends at the time, Laura, already had two children, and she and her husband wanted to wait awhile before having any more. But when I walked into their home one afternoon, she looked at me with tears in her eyes.

“Ann.” She didn’t even say hello. Her husband sat across the room with a pained look on his face, and I knew what she was going to tell me in a split second. “We’re pregnant.”

We hugged long and hard, both of us in tears. She knew what hearing this news would cost me. She knew how dearly I wanted another child — and how they hadn’t been planning for this one. “I wanted to tell you in person because … because I’m sorry. I wish it was you, Ann,” she whispered into my ear. “I’m so excited about this child, but I don’t want to hurt you.”

Was I happy for them? I tried to be. But my own sense of loss — and the lack of fairness in it all — overwhelmed my joy. I felt so deeply ignored by God, so completely unseen.

Why, when Michael and I had been crying out for another child, would the Lord bless our friends with a child they weren’t even trying to have? Why was it so easy for Laura and so hard for me? What was going on?

These questions of comparison often fill our lives: How come she gets to be healthy when I’m fighting a chronic illness? Why does she get to hold down a steady job when anxiety keeps me from functioning? Why is she married and I’m not? Why can’t I have a better job like him? Why is her life so easy when mine is so difficult?

Comparison, either from our own hearts or from the mouths of others, is a daily reality for most of us, and it can cause deep pain. And especially when others get what we desperately want, the voice of comparison can start to weave subtle but troublesome lies into our relationship with God — that perhaps He loves others more than He loves us or that He listens to others more than He listens to us.

But friend, those lies, which will try to steal your peace, are not the truth. God is at work in your life, and His plans and purposes for you are distinct and important. The Bible declares: “The Lᴏʀᴅ will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lᴏʀᴅ, endures forever” (Psalm 138:8a).

And so the choice is before us: whether we will let the lies of comparison keep us in anxiety and fear … or we will look to the Lord for our purposes to be fulfilled and for our identity to be secure in Him.

We do this by keeping our hearts grounded in the Word, and by choosing to focus on Christ’s love and goodness. Even with the hardships we face, God’s Word offers us freedom from comparison when we realize we are uniquely made for His purposes and He is working out all things for our good: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, ESV).

The Lord hears you. He sees you. Even if life isn’t turning out how you expected, God has goodness and peace for you.

He has not forgotten you.

Lord, help me to walk in Your peace even when others get what I desperately want. Keep me from comparison, and help me to look to You for my purpose and identity. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. 

When a Nation Turns Its Back on God..Dr. Charles Stanley

 When a Nation Turns Its Back on God

Dr. Charles Stanley

2 Chronicles 33

Hezekiah was a god-fearing king who brought about reformation among the Israelites. His son Manasseh, however, was an evil ruler. He had watched his father walk with God and live according to Scripture. Yet he chose to ignore the Lord.

Manasseh worshipped false gods, even to the point of sacrificing his sons by fire in order to praise Molech. He practiced much evil—including witchcraft and sorcery— and led Israel astray, thereby provoking God to anger. The king, along with the people, paid a high price for his rebellion.

This story illustrates the Lord’s intolerance of a nation’s disregard toward Him. Now consider our country. We, too, are a nation that pushes God aside—one that has turned away from the only true God and embraced idols. Perhaps these aren’t statues of stone, but we worship money, sports ability, fame, and reputation, to name a few.

The United States of America was founded on biblical principles with the intent to guarantee freedom of worship. But over time, we have removed the Lord from many aspects of public life. Prayer in schools, for instance, was deemed unconstitutional. What was once a “nation under God” has turned into a country that tolerates a growing number of sins and yet belittles absolute truth.

If a nation turns its back on the Lord, His judgment is inevitable unless the people repent and make Him Lord once again. As believers, our responsibility is to pray that God would draw the heart of our country back to Himself—and to help the gospel and truth spread through our land....

Trusting God with Our Whole Heart.. By: Anne Peterson

 Trusting God with Our Whole Heart (Proverbs 3:5-6)

By: Anne Peterson

Today's Bible Verse: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. - Proverbs 3:5-6

What a crazy time we’re living in. We collectively struggle with trust.

You hear one thing on the news and change the channel and hear something completely different. So, what are we to do? Where can we turn?

Our verses in Proverbs clearly tell us that we can trust the Lord. And we can trust him with our whole heart. God tells us not to lean on our own understanding, but rather to acknowledge God in all our ways. But, I have to confess, I lean heavily at times on my own understanding. And when I do, I’m soon frustrated, wondering why things don’t seem to work out.

We are all works in progress. I have not arrived. I will still make mistakes and I’ll even blow it royally at times. But I’m so thankful that when I mess up, God invites me to come to him. And I can put my mistakes in his large, capable hands.

Growing up, I struggled with perfectionism. There are times I still wrestle with it. In my family of origin, only perfection was seen. So, I learned pretty early in life whatever I did needed to be perfect. Our dad reinforced this by only seeing what was perfect. Sadly, after a while I watched my brother get so discouraged he stopped trying altogether.

Little did I know that when I went out on my own, that I’d be bringing my baggage with me. Perfectionism was neatly packed in one of my suitcases.

And years later, when I found myself in a counselor’s office, I could finally fess up to this struggle. Do you want to know what helped me the most? It was learning I no longer needed to strive for acceptance. God has already accepted me. He did it when I accepted his Son, Jesus. The only truly perfect one. And Jesus shed his perfect blood for me on the cross when he died. And that blood satisfied the heart of God.

I still blow it sometimes, but God sees me through the blood Jesus shed, and I am forgiven. There is nothing I can do which will lessen God’s love for me and there’s nothing I can do that will make God love me more. Those words bring freedom.

God looks at those who accept Jesus as their Savior and God is pleased. Trusting in the finished work of Calvary takes faith and, we are told without in scripture without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).

As new believers we knew God would answer our prayers. God could do anything. But somewhere along the way, we began believing lies from the enemy. Lies like:

God is tired of answering your prayers.

God doesn’t care about you.

God is disappointed in you.

I’m so glad we can drench ourselves in the Word of God and the lies become obvious.

- God doesn’t grow weary (Isaiah 40:28).

- God encourages us to cast our cares on him because he cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).

- God does not get disappointed in us because when we do blow it, he removes our transgressions from us (Psalm 102:12).

I’m so glad God gave us his Word so we can meditate on what’s true and denounce the lies. When we are immersed in God’s Word we can love God wholeheartedly. Is there something stopping you from trusting God with your whole heart?

God loves you totally. And you can trust him with your whole heart. Listen to this song, Half of my Heart, by Nathan Peterson. May it bless you as it blesses me.

Let God Carry You

When you can’t take another step,
then let God carry you.
Not only can he lift you up,
He carries burdens, too.

- Anne Peterson

Defining the Enemy...by Lynette Kittle

 Defining the Enemy

by Lynette Kittle

“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked” - Luke 6:35

With wars, conflicts, and unrest taking place in the world, whom do we see as our enemy? Whether we like it or not, whatever nation we are born into, we become subject to the government and rulers we live under, sometimes under situations, policies, and actions we don’t support or believe in.

As well the world tends to assign overall responsibility to all people who live under particular governments, even if they are powerless to change their nation’s actions and aggressions.

Sadly entire groups of people are held accountable for their leaders’ reckless, unjust, and atrocious actions because of where they were born and live, suffering under the guilt by association and the backlash that comes from being a citizen in a land run by fallen rulers. Proverbs 29:2 explains how when the wicked rule, the people groan.

What Defines an Enemy?
Likewise spiritually speaking, as humans we are subject to the wrongful actions of our fallen leader, Adam. We have no choice in whether or not we inherit his sinful nature but unfortunately are born into it, guilty by association, whether we like it or not.

Scripture explains how this occurred and what it means for all of us. “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—” (Romans 5:12).

Sadly most unbelievers are unaware of how Adam’s sin and the fall of humanity under his headship made them enemies of God. Many non-believers don’t see themselves as His enemy but believe they are their own person, one who isn’t connected or answers to anyone beyond their own self.

Instead, they live under a false belief they can be neutral, not knowing that there are only two sides to choose from, good or evil, and to not choose God is making a choice. They don’t understand that if they are not with God then they are against Him (Matthew 12:30).

Loving the World Versus Loving God
Many people including some believers don’t understand that loving the world means not loving God. Sadly too many who claim to be Christians think they can love both God and the world. 

But James 4:4, explains the signs of being an enemy of God. “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”

Through the power of the Holy Spirit believers can resist friendship with the world. However, non-believers are caught in their enemy status because, “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so”(Romans 8:7).

In response to their plights, Jesus calls us in Luke 6:36 to, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

God Has Provided a Way
God has graciously and sacrificially provided a way for all of us to be set free from the consequences of the sin nature we inherited from Adam. “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:21,22).

He has provided a clear way by sending Jesus into the world to set us free from the captivity and consequences of sin (John 3:16). And when Thomas asked Jesus how to find the way to God, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’”(John 14:6).

Not wanting any of us to be His enemy, God calls us to be reconciled to Him through Jesus. “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!”(Romans 5:10).

If you want to be reconciled to Him, choose today to accept His free gift of Salvation through Jesus Christ.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Set time aside this coming week to examine your relationship with the world. Look to see if there are any areas in your life where your love for God has been replaced by worldly loves.