Little friends

We have been talking about the cross of Jesus. Last couple of weeks we looked at an aspect of the cross which was persecution. We talked about how we too, as Christians, will face persecution.

Today we will be looking at a different aspect of the cross. The cross of Jesus was surrender. In Luke 22:39-42 it says, “Jesus left the upper room with His disciples  and, as was His habit, went to the Mount of Olives, His place of secret prayer. There He told the apostles, “Keep praying for strength to be spared from the severe test of your faith that is about to come.” Then He withdrew from them a short distance  to be alone. Kneeling down, He prayed, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup of agony away from Me.  But no matter what, Your will must be Mine.”

Now that is prayer. We cannot have surrender without prayer. Surrender and submission go against our nature. We want to be large and in charge. We want to be in control and running the show. Prayer reminds us that we do not have control, but we know the One who does. Since we know the One who is large and in charge, we don’t have to know everything. We don’t have to understand everything. We just need to trust. Jesus had to trust God through the cross that if He laid His life down, He would resurrect Him so He could pick it back up again. That is surrender. He entrusted His life into the hands of the Father.

Surrender is not adopting the parts of God that we agree with and shelving the rest. It is coming to a place where we decide that God’s will must be our own. We take what God wants done and do it as though it was exactly what we wanted to do. Whether we agree or not, like it or not, it does not matter.

I think sometimes we have a tendency to be overly familiar with God and we bring Him down to the level of our bestie. Yes, in John 15:15, Jesus said He no longer considers us as servants but calls us friends. But we cannot forget that there is also an aspect of God that is… God. He is humble enough to call us friends but that does not mean we get to disrespect Him and treat Him as an equal. We are not equals with God. We never will be. He is still Lord and the supreme ruler over all things.

So when it comes to surrender, it is not a negotiation between two friends. It is a requirement from God (Lord, Creator, Sovereign, the great I AM) to us who are created beings. Yes, I know. It would probably read better if I said, “us His children”. But even then, some people have dysfunctional relationships with their parents because they grew up as “friends” or equals. My parents made it clear that they were not one of my little friends. What they were communicating was that I could not treat them and relate to them the same way I do with my friends, there was a boundary there.

Abraham was called a friend of God, and not once did he disrespect God or take what God said lightly. If there was a time to test the friendship it would have been when God asked him to go sacrifice Isaac. But what does the Bible say? Early the next morning, Abraham got up and set out to go do it. No discussion, no negotiating. Simple obedience. Abraham, God’s friend, knew where the boundary was and not once tried to cross it or disrespect what God was saying or doing in his life. He was surrendered.

Jesus modelled our posture to God for us. Philippians 2:6 says, “Though he [Jesus] was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.” What does this mean? In the garden, Jesus knelt down and prayed. He was still fully God but, in His humanity, He knelt before God. He didn’t walk around like, “I am God. I don’t need to pray. Why would I kneel? Me and God are cool. He knows my heart.” No. Now, if Jesus had to humble Himself and kneel and pray, why do we think we can approach God any kind of way? “Oh yeah, me and God are friends. He gets me.” I am sure He does, but is what He is getting disrespect and dishonour?

God has boundaries and no, He is not one of our little friends. If unsure where the line is, start with being a child. We can relate to God as children. But even so we need to remember who He is and the distinction between His role as our Father and our role as children.

Ok, we’ll stop here for today. We’ll continue next week!

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.