Your Identity In Christ: Day 2 - Pastor Ryan Shook
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“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you.”
John 15:15 (NIV)
Discovering your identity as a child of God is the start of an adventure of faith. As you cultivate an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you experience a depth of friendship with God you never dreamed possible. In John 15:15 (NIV) Jesus told His followers, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you.”
Consider that promise for just a minute. Don’t rush by it. Let the weight of what Jesus said sink into your soul. Contemplate it. Read it over a few more times and think for a moment about your friendship with Jesus. How would you describe it?
In his classic devotional, My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers points out that Jesus desires a much closer intimacy with us when He says, “I have called you friends.” “Friendship is rare on earth. It means identity in thought and heart and spirit. The whole discipline of life is to enable us to enter into this closest relationship with Jesus Christ. We receive His blessings and know His Word, but do we know Him?” This was the apostle Paul’s greatest desire. In Philippians 3:10-11 (Amplified) he wrote, “[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].”
In his devotional, Chambers goes on to write, “It is a joy to Jesus when a disciple takes time to step more intimately with Him. Fruit bearing is always mentioned as the manifestation of an intimate union with Jesus Christ.” In the same chapter where Jesus calls us friends, He says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 (NIV) Is this the kind of friendship you share with Him? It can be, because He calls you ‘friend’!
I love the way Chambers describes this friendship. “When once we get intimate with Jesus, we are never lonely, we never need sympathy, we can pour out all the time without being pathetic. The Christian who is truly intimate with Jesus will never draw attention to himself but will only show the evidence of a life where Jesus is completely in control. This is the outcome of allowing Jesus to satisfy every area of life to its depth. The picture resulting from such a life is that of the strong, calm balance that our Lord gives to those who are intimate with Him.”
Another important part of your daily devotional is spending time with God in prayer. The Woodlands Church Prayer Board lists prayer requests submitted by our members and provides a way to send them some encouragement by using a button on the page to let them know that you prayed for them. Whether you use the Prayer Board, or pray from your heart, the goal is to build the habit of incorporating prayer into your quiet time.
Need prayer yourself? Let us know by submitting a prayer request on the Woodlands Church Prayer Board.