\u201cI do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn\u2019t know what his master is doing. \u00a0I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.\u201d \u00a0John 15:15 CSB
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He has made known to us everything He has heard from His Father, we are His friends. We are IN! We belong! We are friends!
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Just this morning on the news, I heard a clip from Brene Brown. She\u2019s a NY times bestselling author who has studied relationships for the past two decades. She has a new Netflix series, \u201c \u201cThe Call to Courage\u201d which is about choosing courage over comfort in today\u2019s society. She was describing the difference between \u201cfitting in\u201d and \u201cbelonging\u201d. I love the point she was making: fitting in is knowing what you need to do to be accepted by the people around you, belonging is being true to yourself and your beliefs, even if it means you are all alone. That\u2019s not a direct quote, it\u2019s what I heard.
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It\u2019s true. We spend so much time trying to fit in we don\u2019t belong. I know I\u2019ve felt this way in my life. Some of my loneliness moments have been when I\u2019m surrounded by people because I refuse to do what they are doing. It\u2019s because I try to live for an audience of One, I\u2019m not saying I always succeed. In fact, there are times I just down right fail but there are two scriptures I cling to when it comes to this:
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\u201cObviously, I\u2019m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal I would not be Christ\u2019s servant.\u201d (Galatians 1:10 NIV) According to our verse today, I wouldn\u2019t be Christ\u2019s friend, since He no longer calls us servants but friends.
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The second scripture I yearn to hear when God moves me to heaven is this one:
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\u201cWell done good and faithful servant!\u201d Matthew 25:23 NIV
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I don\u2019t want to \u201cfit in\u201d here on earth. I want to belong to Christ in Heaven. I want Him to be my friend and I His. The song, \u201cWhat a Friend in Jesus\u201d says it all:
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What a friend we have in Jesus all our sins and grieves to bear<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh what peace we often forfeit of what needless pain we bear<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have we trials and temptations is there trouble anywhere<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we have don’t be discouraged take it to the Lord in prayer
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Have we trials and temptations?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is there trouble anywhere?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We should never be discouraged\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take it to the Lord in prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can we find a friend so faithful,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who will all our sorrows share?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus knows our every weakness;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn\u2019t know what his master is doing. \u00a0I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.\u201d \u00a0John 15:15 CSB He has made known to us everything He has heard from His Father, we are His… Continue reading GOD PROMISES US FRIENDSHIP<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":772,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions\/772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}