There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. [John 15:13-15 (NLT)]
I have a young friend who’s quite a sports fan. Not only can he spout statistics for his favorite baseball and football players, he can recite the biographies of the top American Ninja Warriors as well. He knows about several athletes and yet none of them know anything about him or would recognize him on the street. I don’t know which team he favored for last Sunday’s Super Bowl but I’m sure he knew who led in kicking and punting or kick and punt returns. Enthusiastic fans do more than know the stats—they often wear team jerseys and may even paint their faces. The prevalence of blue and red shirts on Sunday made it clear the fans at our church favored the Patriots. Considering all the whooping, hollering, high fives and fist bumps that occurred later that day while watching the Super Bowl, you’d think the fans were the ones scoring the points. Using the pronoun “we” for their favored team, they moaned about calls, trash talked the opposition and analyzed plays as if they were on the field. Although fans can dress like their favorite team member, know the stats for the players, and watch every game, they’re not on a first name basis with any of the team. Neither friends nor acquaintances, they’re just fans.
There’s nothing wrong with being a fan. It binds us with other people and gives us a sense of belonging. It’s a way to capture a little feeling of glory and achieve victory when we can’t attain it ourselves. If nothing else, it gives us something to talk about with strangers. There is, however, a big difference between fandom and friendship.
Are we fans of Jesus or are we His friends? Rather than stats, do we quote Bible verses? Rather than games, do we attend worship services? Instead of hosting a tailgate, do we serve at church? Rather than buy team merchandise, do write a check for a good cause? While all are worthwhile, none of these make us anything more than fans. Knowing Bible verses, worshipping, serving at church, and even tithing are no substitute for a relationship with Jesus. It’s not enough to know about Him or to do for Him. He wants us to be His friends rather than His fans; He wants to know us and for us to truly know Him.
Unlike fandom, Christianity is not a spectator sport. God wants fellowship with us; he wants to know us personally. Prayer is what takes us from fandom to friendship. In prayer, we summon all of the enthusiasm we have for God and use it to speak with Him. While few of us will ever meet or eat with Ninja Warrior Joe Moravsky or the Patriots’ Tom Brady, Jesus welcomes us into His heart every day and invites us to break bread with Him regularly. We’re only a prayer away from Him. We can celebrate an athlete’s victories or we can celebrate God’s grace with the one who was victorious over sin and death!
Fan or friend—which one is it?
What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer! [Joseph Scriven]
So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. [Romans 5:11 (NLT)]
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For two years, I was part of a women’s ministry. One of its purposes was to host a web site for twelve Christian writers. We were a diverse multi-generational group and the site offered hyperlinks to our individual blogs. All were women who felt they’d been called by God to expand His kingdom through their writing. We regularly shared our prayer concerns with one another and a month rarely passed without one or more women requesting prayers for their writing or asking for divine inspiration. Sadly, the ministry disbanded this past year, in great part due to the lack of writing by most of the authors.
Our pastor once told the story of a recently married parishioner. After a long day of travel, he and his new wife finally arrived at their hotel. The groom hoisted the bride in his arms and opened the door to their deluxe suite. It had a beautiful view of the beach, a small kitchenette, and an elaborate entertainment system. What it didn’t appear to have was a bed! They finally checked the sofa and discovered it was a hide-a-bed. They were exhausted and, deciding it was too late to complain, the newlyweds unfolded the bed and settled in. Like most hide-a-beds, this one had a thin mattress and two supporting bars that seemed to dig into whatever part of the body was downward. The couple tossed and turned and, needless to say, their honeymoon night did not meet their expectations.
Filled with law, wisdom, history, prophecy, poetry, gospel, and letters, the Bible is the basis of our faith. None of us, however, were alive in 1400 BC when Genesis was written or at the end of the 1st Century when Revelation was penned. We’re neither Jews in Judah, Egypt, Israel, or Babylon nor 1st Century Jewish or Gentile converts in Rome or Greece and we have little in common with the Bible’s original audience. Although Scripture is timeless, that difference in time and culture makes us think of Scripture as impersonal and its words as general instructions dedicated to the community of faith at large. There is, however, nothing impersonal about God’s message to us and we are not faceless nameless members of His family. Scripture penned thousands of years ago was written specifically for you and me today. There is a personal relevant message for each one of us every time we read its words.
O Lord, hear me praying; listen to my plea, O God my King, for I will never pray to anyone but you. Each morning I will look to you in heaven and lay my requests before you, praying earnestly. [Psalm 5:1-3 (TLB)]
Devotions of the Heart 