^{Seeing God through the Eyes of Jesus}

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

         Jesus spent time with God. He often sent the disciples away on the boat so that He could be alone with God. He prayed to God. He was God and yet He desired closeness with God the Father. Above it says as the Father loved me, He definitely felt loved by God.  In 1Cor. He describes himself as a visible of an invisible God. He loved God, spent time praying to God, and He came to show us God.

         Many of the people that I talk to in counseling see God as the Creator and as a part of their life, yet they don’t really think about embracing the love of God or living in a intimate relationship with God. God feels “out there” to many people, maybe even a little untouchable. But Jesus modeled a relationship with God and in hopes of showing us the friendship and comfort level that we can seek with God the Father.

         “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down ones’ life for one’s friends.” Jesus called us His friends. He is and was God, He modeled a relationship with God the Father, and He calls us His friends. God wants to be our friend.

         God wants our happiness and sorrow. He wants to be close enough so that we share our longings, our disappointments, our needs, our deepest feelings…He wants an intimacy with us and a depth that is very complex and yet so simple. He wants our heart and He wants to be close to our heart. I believe that Jesus connected with God on earth in a deep real way; He modeled that for us, in hopes that we would follow His example and live in relationship with the Father.

Answer-

Do you have a comfort level with God? Do you desire greater intimacy with Him?

Do you think about Jesus and His life here and how He modeled relationships?

Prayer-

God,
I want to be “real” with You. Help me to see You as a God that does not “should or shame,” but who loves me as Your child. Thank you that You desire closeness with me, show me ways to grow in my friendship with You. Help me to invite You into all areas of my life (relationships, struggles, feelings, needs, longings). Help me to trust you like Jesus did on earth.  In Jesus name


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