The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. John 3:29
Are you a friend of the bridegroom? Does He call you… ‘friend’? (John 15:15) Maintaining that relationship / friendship with Jesus should be you number one priority. Are you practicing the fruit of the Spirit in your relationship with Him. Are you loving Him, kind and good towards Him? Are you trustworthy, honest, and faithful to His instructions and Voice?
Goodness and purity should never be traits that draw attention to yourself, but just be sign to point others to Him. If my ‘holiness’ isn’t pointing others to Him it isn’t the right kind of holiness, and just a kind of evil influence that evokes emotions and desires in people that diverts them in the wrong direction. A beautiful ‘saint’ can be a hindrance to others if all they do is show and recount what Jesus has done for them, instead of presenting Jesus Christ Himself. Others then think “What a wonderful person!” That is NOT being a ‘friend’ to the Bridegroom, I am growing all the time, HE is NOT! HE is WORTHY of all praise, not me, not you.
Being His friend means reaching and maintaining a certain level of spiritual maturity. We have to be about this relationship with Him above all things, including .. obedience. Let me explain. Does your spouse only want your obedience to them? Sometimes there is nothing to obey, but to maintain that vital intimate connection with Him, making sure NOTHING gets in the way of that ongoing intimacy. It’s in the time of crisis or opportunity that we need to know His will for us, and we will need to spend time asking Him which way we should go, and do. Yet most of the time is not the instance of decision making and really is about working on that intimacy with Him, being His … friend. Even “Christian” work can be diversion from that intimacy and draws our focus away from Him onto the ‘work’ we think we are doing for Him. Instead of being His friend we become little amateur ‘providences’ of God to someone else which is actually working against Him using His own weapons.
Friends, work on that vital relationship today with Him .. being His friend. Be kind, gracious, humble, loving, and good with Jesus today. If you don’t have a clue what that looks like, ask the Holy Spirit. He’ll be happy to inform you what Jesus loves. We all know how we all love people that complain, whine, and grumble about how hard they have it… right? Or how do we react to the grateful and joyous individual in our midst?
Jesus fill us with again with Your love, wash through us. We desire You more than our own lives. Holy Spirit immerse us in Your love / His love. We want to be Your .. friend!