Tag Archives: surrender

May I be a friend of Jesus Christ without doing what He says?

In my morning reading from a collage of Scriptures, I read this:

Ye are my friends,
if ye do whatsoever I command you.
John 15:14

But then, in the next verse, Jesus says…

Henceforth I call you not servants;
for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth:
but I have called you friends.
John 15:15

How am I not a servant if I do whatever the Lord tells me to do?

Then again, how can I be the Lord’s friend if I don’t do what He says?

Servant or friend, I don’t deserve any kind of good relationship with the Almighty.

(These were the last and first verses in what I read this morning: Daily Light on the Daily Path.)

I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. —Jonah 2:4

Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. -Isaiah 49:14,15

I forgat prosperity. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. -Lamentations 3:17,18

Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever. -Psalm 44:23

Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? -Isaiah 40:27

In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. -Isaiah 54:8

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance. -Psalm 43:5

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. -2 Corinthians 4:8,9

Daily Light on the Daily Path | October 25, Morning