Guest Writer: Lindsey Gill

"What a Friend We Have in Jesus"

One of the most beautiful gifts we are given in this life are the relationships we have. God wants us to enjoy our time here and share it with others. Recently I listened to the song, “What a Friend We Have In Jesus”, it got me thinking, how often do I turn to Jesus as my friend? At times I have found it hard to think of our Mighty God in the role of friendship, it almost feels too small a title for Him. I started reflecting on the relationships in my life and holding them up to my relationship with Christ. The most important relationships in our lives, our friends, spouses, children, we put so much into them. So much of our time, our hearts, ourselves. Are we doing that with our relationship with Jesus? That relationship should be our top priority, yet I find that it’s one I squeeze in when I can a lot of the time. If I’m not careful it just turns into a box to check off my daily to do list. Pray, check. Devotions, check. Read scripture, check. I can do better, what a waste of the greatest relationship I can have in my life if that is how I'm treating it. 

I’m a big “life application” person. I want to know how I can put things into action. So what can I do to make Jesus, and turning to Him as my friend, a priority? What does that look like in my life? Using my earthly relationships as examples I started to break it down some. 

Time is a big one. We spend a lot of time with those we enjoy and are close to. Time is precious, we are only given a certain amount of if, and not knowing how much of it we get should motivate us to use it to its fullest. It’s easy to spend it with our families and friends and have that shoulder to shoulder time with them, but what would it look like if we gave more of it to Jesus? What would our days look like if we started them off in conversation with Jesus? Sharing our victories with Him and our troubles. We are invited into relationship with our Creator, it should be a no brainer to give him more of our time, so why is it so hard? How do we do better? I think that looks different for everyone. It all starts with intentionality though and inviting Him in to do a heart check and to do the work in us to be better stewards of our time, to give Him more of it. 

I think about how much I communicate with people. I look at my phone and it’s pretty obvious the relationships that I put more into. It’s very easy for me to send a Marco Polo to my best friend that is a half hour long, rambling about all of the things, but how is my prayer life? We are invited into conversation with Jesus. Through prayer we have an open line of communication with Him. He yearns for us to be calling out to Him, to be telling Him about our day, thanking Him for all the little places we see Him in His creation. Why is it so hard for us to be obedient in that? This is an area I definitely feel convicted in and want to do better. In the past, something that helped me was to write out prayers or a gratitude list through the day and sit down with it at night and start up that conversation, share all of the things with Jesus. 

When things are heavy and we need to share the weight, or unload, we usually turn to our closest people. They listen to us, reflect with us, and hopefully offer us some biblically sound advice. But why aren't we laying those heavy things at the feet of Jesus? He tells us His yoke is easy and the burden is light. He tells us to come to Him when we are weary. It’s not always going to be a good time for our people to hear us out or be there for us. But we will never be turned away from Jesus. The New Testament is filled with examples of the people around Jesus bringing their messes to Him and Him responding with love and gentleness. He will handle ours with the same love and gentleness, but we have to make the first move and actually lay the messes down, fully, at His feet. Without trying to control things. I don’t know about you, but an easy yoke and light burdens sure sound nice these days! 

There is a lot more to unpack in what it looks like to have Jesus in our lives in the role of our friend, but these were the parts that stood out to me the most. These are the areas I want to work on the most. What a beautiful thing we are invited into. Let’s make it a priority above all the other relationships around us. Let’s seek out scripture for those examples and those instructions to build up our relationship with Christ more than we ever thought possible. What a friend we have in Jesus, I don’t know about you, but that statement alone brings so much joy to my soul. Thinking about what that looks like in my life fills me with both excitement and anticipation. Let’s put feet on these words and go make our relationship with Jesus the more important one in our lives. 

Lindsey Gill, wife and mother to 3, has lived in Niobrara County most of her life. She is a member of Lusk Alliance Church and has been involved in various youth and women’s ministries over the last 10 years. In this season of life her days are spent homeschooling her kids which she has found a passion for. Her families’ faith in Christ is the center point and anchor in all they set out to do.