Friends of God

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. 

John 15:13-15

Friends, we all like to have friends, friendship is very necessary. In our society it is very important to have friends, we go to public places, squares, parks, and schools. We see many people and we hear them say many times; "... they sent me a WhatsApp message, hey they sent me a friend request on Facebook, a while ago I was talking to my friend on the chat and he told me this, my friend told me ... he told me this on Instagram ...", a lot of social media networks that exist in our days, all promoting something called friendship. Until 2018, there were 4 billion people registered on social media networks that are online every day, we have been in this generation, a generation where people almost do not talk to each other, they do everything on their cell phones. They have friends and they accept them and many times they do not even know them. They have not even seen them once in their lives, but they proudly say; I have thousands of friends on my social networks, but maybe not even 10 of that amount are real friends. There is a difference between being a follower, an acquaintance and being a friend.

I chose this topic, because I know that today most of the friendships of the young people are through a social media network, and many times these friendships are not real and sincere.

I have heard the following phrase; sincere friends are counted with one hand.

It is difficult to find a sincere friend in times where self-interest is greatest.

What would you think if I told you that the creator of the universe wants to call you his friend? You would be surprised at that. Look what the Bible says... 

James 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

I want to tell you something there is someone who knows you need friends and He wants to call you friend, wants to develop a friendship with you, and wants Him and you to be unconditional friends. But let me tell you that this friendship is not achieved like the friends of today. This friendship is achieved on your knees, is achieved through the reading of a book called Bible, is achieved by spending time with God.

And in this verse that you read a few seconds ago, we noticed the word friend, imagine that, friend of God, friend of Jesus, I am proud of some friendships that I have. I am a friend of several pastors and preachers that filled me with pride in saying that they are my friends. I feel honored and happy to have certain people as my friends and for sure you feel the same way with certain friends, now imagine the joy and pride of being able to say Jesus is MY friend.

There were many good men in the Bible, there were people who served God and obeyed him in everything, but this is the first man God called his friend, Abraham, I do not know about you but I would like to hear from the lips of God tell; "Abner is my friend", and for sure you would also like to hear your name, you would feel privileged to have that friendship, but what did Abraham do to earn that title? What did Abraham do to be called a friend of God?

If I could talk to him on this day without a doubt, I would ask him these questions, and he was studying and coming to these conclusions; Abraham believed in God, and obeyed him, and something that in a friendship is very indispensable, is trust, you can not have a friend you do not trust, and Abraham trusted God. Jesus wants you to put your trust in him, he wants to help you in your problems, he will tell you not to worry about your past, what you did, that he wants to dry your tears, heal your wounds and help you walk, keep going, see with me Jesus says to you, I have thrown your errors into the depths of the sea, I am not here to trample you, I am here to help you and get up, come with me and we will be friends, I will be that friend that you want in your problems, Even if you do wrong, maybe my advice can irritate you, but I'll help you get out of those problems, and I'll be with you every day until the end of the world. How many love a friend like that? 

This friendship if it's worth, this friendship is very important, it will never fail you, whenever you need it, it will be with you, because that is the friendship of my God, a friend who did not want you to die and go to hell, a friend that to avoid all that he preferred to die to save you, if he wants to be your friend, maybe you have been rejecting him, maybe you do not want to join him, talk to him, but he is telling you on this day what more do you want me to do? I gave my life for you, because I want you to be saved, I have shown you the desire that I have to have your friendship with that sacrifice I did for you on the cross of Calvary, let's be friends, deposit your friendship and trust in me.

The friends of this world can fail you, they can make fun of you, they will fail, but Jesus never fails. The true friend is not the one who comes for what you have and abandons you when there is nothing. The true friend is the one who is willing to sacrifice everything for you, the one who will stay by your side. The true friend is the one who is going to ask you how you are, how you feel, if you feel like laughing, if you feel like crying , is the one who extends his hand and not to judge you, but to help you get up, the one who explains to you if you do not understand, the one who helps you walk, and there is only one who can fulfill all this and more and that is Jesus. Appreciate, love this friendship that the Lord Jesus Christ has given you. 

Jesus is going to laugh with you, he is going to cry with you, become a friend of Jesus. Jesus is not going to make fun of you. When you fall Jesus says to you, "let's get up and keep going friend, I'm with you at all times, not only when everything is fine and it's going very well, but also in the bad , I want to share with you the good times and the bad." Jesus will never forget you, and I can tell you with certainty that God does not care about your differences, your problems, he tells you on this day, "you have problems, but I am by your side and together we will win." I can say that Jesus is my best friend, he has never abandoned me in the moments where I have needed him the most. I recommend to everyone the friendship of God, and once you have it, do not lose it.

It is very hard when a friend fails you, many friends of this world are lost after betraying and failing someone, and as human beings we will fail and hurt someone who loves us, in the easy world we can lose a friend for betraying him, but look how Jesus acts in this situation. Judas betrays Jesus and sells him, I give him to kill him;

Matthew 26:50 And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus and took him.
I can not stop thinking about the love of God towards Judas, and not only towards Judas, but towards all those who have failed him. We have betrayed him. I would not have let that happen if I had been Jesus. I put myself to think that Jesus is really the only one that, despite you and I fail, and we betray him, is the only one who will show friendship in any circumstance. Imagine Jesus with tears in his eyes telling Judas, Friend, what have you done? Friend, with a kiss you give to the Son of Man? 
If you have sinned, Jesus is still telling you, my friend, if you have betrayed and disappointed me. Jesus continues to call you friend.

Thank you Lord because despite the times we have failed and betrayed you still call us friends. 

My advice for this day is that you seek the eternal friendship of Jesus Christ; he will be your best friend regardless of what happens.

By Abner Garcia.
Translated Josue Garcia.