I love the song, “I’m a friend of God.” He wants to call us friend. However, He also says that we are His friend if we do what He commands us to do. Jesus made it clear that we must be in complete obedience to Him. The Bible says in John 15:14, “You are my friends if you do what I command you.”
Most of the time we don’t have to obey our friends, so why does Jesus say we have to obey Him to be His friend? We are not just friends of Him, we are “friends of the king.” Although we are friends, we are not the same. How can you be equal to God? you can’t. The thing is, He knows everything from the beginning to the end. He also knows everything about you more than you think. He has the hairs of your head numbered. Why wouldn’t we want to obey Christ because He knows more about ourselves than we do?!
We obey God not out of duty, fear or compulsion as we would most earthly kings, we obey Jesus out of love and trust Him to know that He knows better than us and knows what is best for us. He died for our sins, so we follow him in gratitude for all he has done for us.
Jesus is the greatest example of a loving relationship. He had a loving relationship with the Father and Jesus did what the Father wanted him to do until his death. He said: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you: remain in my love, if you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love. ( John 15:9-11) Keeping Jesus’ commandments as He kept the Father’s commandments is the ultimate act of love.
Jesus’ public ministry lasted only three and a half years. He started when he was thirty years old. What did He do during those thirty years? He was obedient to God. The first 30 years of his life can be summed up in just two words in Luke 2:51. He “lived obediently.” He was obedient to his earthly parents. Thirty years of pleasing God were spent in a carpentry shop helping his parents.
Are you obedient to the Lord today? If you want your destiny, you MUST obey the one who made you, he loves you and wants the best for you. When the time comes He will shower blessings on you so that you can fulfill your destiny.