No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. (John 15: 15, NKJV).
Dear God, it is with grateful hearts that we approach Your Throne of Grace once again and say, “Thank You Lord” for calling us friends! We graciously accept the honor and privilege in the blessed name of Jesus Christ, Your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Yesterday we started a short series of devotionals based on this wonderful hymn. Today we are going in search of another message of love from our Heavenly Parent. Yesterday’s message was taken from the second half of the first stanza. Today, let us go back to the very beginning of that same stanza and see what we can gleam: “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear; What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!” (Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, p. 499. Emphasis provided).
How many of us consider prayer a privilege? I do not doubt for a second that many people appreciate Jesus as our sin and grief bearer, yet it appears that many who appreciate this fact seem to take prayer for granted. Perhaps if we were to study Jesus’ prayer life we would discover the great importance Jesus placed on prayer.
At very crucial moments in the Savior’s life He would spend entire nights in prayer. When He chose the twelve apostles: “Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles:” (Luke 6: 12, 13. Emphasis provided).
When they wanted to make Him king by force: “Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone” (John 6: 15). Luke telling the same story (9: 18) lets us know that he withdrew alone to pray.
On the Mount of Transfiguration as the time of his crucifixion was drawing near: “Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening” (28, 29).
The night before He was crucified when His heart was pained beyond human endurance: “Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me” … (Matthew 26: 36-38).
If the Sinless, Perfect, Son of God found it necessary, in times of decision-making, temptation, and tribulation, to utilize the privilege of prayer in His humanity, in order to overcome, I believe it goes without saying, that we have an infinitesimally greater need, not only to pray, but to recognize in prayer the wonderful, glorious, privilege that is ours to be able to talk to our Friend in prayer!
NOTE: We are still experiencing difficulties in separating the paragraphs of our devotionals due to work being done on the website. My apologies.
“What A Friend We Have in Jesus”! – Part 2
im a long haul driver sick of being aatkcted through pornographic images every where, it is wearing me down physically and spiritually, it is affecting my prayer life and thus my abilityas a spiritual leader and protecter of my family. this one is not the ordinary daily temptations but all out brazzen attacks that are also manifesting themselfs in physically impossible acts such as beams leaning on the truck lifting up and hitting me . im calling for any prayer warriors on this one
im a long haul driver sick of being aatkcted through pornographic images every where, it is wearing me down physically and spiritually, it is affecting my prayer life and thus my abilityas a spiritual leader and protecter of my family. this one is not the ordinary daily temptations but all out brazzen attacks that are also manifesting themselfs in physically impossible acts such as beams leaning on the truck lifting up and hitting me . im calling for any prayer warriors on this one