Best-Friends or Mere Acquaintances?

For some time now, I’ve been asking a few friends two questions. The first is; “If you died, were suddenly standing at heaven’s gate, knocking, and God asked you why He should let you into His kingdom, how would you answer?” The second is; “If you knew tonight was your last night on earth, what will you do differently?”
I had a varying number of answers which set me thinking. Are we bestfriends with Jesus or mere acquaintances?

You see, the first is a trick question. God would never ask you that question, if you are friends. Because that would be like you going to your best friend’s house, knocking on the door and him asking you why he should let you in.  That wouldn’t happen because you would have talked earlier that day, you might have talked while you were on the way over. When you got there, he wouldn’t do anything else but open the door wide and welcome you in. That’s how it’ll be with you and God because of Christ. He’ll welcome you like a friend because that’s what you’ve been all along the way. So again I ask, are you friends with Jesus or just merely acquainted?

The second question on the other hand made me wonder about the level of relationship we had with Jesus. You see, most answers I got had to do with confession of sins and spending the whole night in prayer. I was a bit confused. If you had a bestfriend you speak to almost every time, but have never met in person, you’ll be overjoyed to know you are finally about to meet. You won’t be scared of meeting Him, afterall, perfect love drives away all fear. Being bestfriends, you’ll definitely have known His likes and dislikes and immediately apologized if you wronged Him, to keep your relationship going. Which leads to another question… Is our love perfect enough to drive away fear? Is our fear because we are not as close to him as we are supposed to be?

Our relationship with Christ shouldn’t be based on the fear of spending eternity in hell. Our relationship with Him should instead be based on our love for Him. That way, it won’t be a struggle to spend time with Him.
Just like how couples in the early stages of a relationship constantly want to be talking to each other, that’s how our relationship with Jesus should be. Always thirsting after Him and never getting full, a love that never grows stale but is renewed daily at His feet.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t be eternity focused. We definitely should because we don’t know when we will die, how we will die or where we will die, so we must live each day as if it were our last. Live daily with eternity in our hearts.

Also, Jesus is not an all-year-round version of Santa Claus who we go to whenever we are in need. We forget all about Him and remember Him only when we are in need. Our conversations with Him are always about the next new thing we need Him to provide or situation we need Him to get us out of. We twist the scriptures out of context to suit ourselves and our needs at every given time and we claim He is talking to us, or He has given us a word. Meanwhile, we feel used when we are treated the same way by people we consider our friends.
Let’s spend time just loving Him, not asking for anything, or looking for anything in return. Let’s love Him unconditionally to the extent that we could say like the three Hebrew boys that “If even He doesn’t save us, still we won’t bow”. Let’s not cheapen our love relationship with Christ to only focusing on what we can get from Him. Let’s focus on what He can do in us and through us.

Let me end with some words from a song by Jonathan McReynolds. “I make time for what I treasure, I choose my priorities, Jesus You’re my number one”. Let’s be Bestfriends with Him, and not just mere acquaintances.