You are My friends if you do what I command you.
— John 15:14
Casting all your anxiety on Him, because it matters to Him concerning you.
— First Peter 5:7
The second way to enjoy Christ is as a Friend. In John 15:14 the Lord tells us, “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” Who is Christ? He is our Friend. What does that mean? It means that we can be frank with Him. When we come to the Lord, we can be so honest and sincere about our true situation. We don’t have to hide things from Him. We don’t have to “beat around the bush.” We can be completely open with Him, because He is our Friend. We can tell Him everything.
Unfortunately we often have the concept that the Lord is far above us, observing us and waiting for us to fall. He has a rod in His hand, and He is ready to punish us if we displease Him. If we come to His presence, His only question will be, “Have you misbehaved? Have you done anything wrong today?”
We do not have such a Lord. If we did, we would all be in trouble. But Christ is our Friend. First, He is the Lamb of God, who takes away all our sins. Then, He is our Friend. The more we enjoy Christ, the more we realize that we can open up everything to Him. We don’t need to hide anything. Even the worst sin we have, we can tell Him. There may even be things that we can’t tell our own family, but we can tell Him. Because He is truly our Friend, we can talk with Him about everything. He has an ear to listen to every problem that we have, whether large or small. That is why First Peter 5:7 tells us, “Casting all your anxiety on Him because it matters to Him concerning you.” We can open up everything to the Lord Jesus as our Friend.
Adapted from Born Again, pages 54-55.
Tomorrow: “Enjoying Christ as Our Friend”