I am going to guess that every one of you knows that Jesus loves you, it doesn’t matter if you happen to have unrepented of sin in your life at the moment, if you are going through difficult times and He has decided not to answer you immediately, and your starting to get maybe just a little upset with Him, or if you are well physically and mentally, we know that Jesus loves us. We also know that “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” (Heb. 12:6) Because that is what a loving Father does to help us to see the path we should be on.
His wrath will never fall upon us, we are assured a place in His eternal kingdom with pleasures forever more, (Psalm 16:11) and even better, we will experience throughout all of eternity His joy upon us. But I was just wondering, do you think God likes you?
Those of you that have children may be able to understand this better than most, especially if you have more than one, one of those children, at least for a certain portion of their lives, is more like you, you have more in common with that one than you do with the others. Now, that doesn’t mean that you love them more, although that could be debatable, but it certainly means that the one that likes to do the things that you like to do will be liked more by you, because that’s the way humans are.
Look at your close, personal friends, do you have any that you do not enjoy being around? Of course not, part of the reason that you are friends, that you like each other, is because you have things in common, some of them are probably things that you never even considered doing before you met them. Friends do things together, because they like each other, friends like each other, because they do things together, one statement does not exist without the other.
Isaac and his wife Rebekah had two sons together, Jacob and Esau, (Gen. 25:23) and if you know the account, it was not what you might call a “happy family.” Isaac and Esau liked each other, and although Isaac was fonder of Esau, he loved them both. Too much friendship can ruin other friendships, very rarely will you find a group of friends that are as close as two singular individuals. There are brothers and sisters in Christ I know that I love, but I do not particularly want to spend a lot of time with them, we just do not have that much in common. So therein is the question begged of you for your consideration, does Jesus like you.
Will He want to spend time with you in heaven because you share the same traits, the same likes and dislikes. The question could be asked like this, are you Christlike? If there is one foundation that friendship rests upon, it is love, and “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.” (1 Cor. 13:4) Friends never seek their own, but always the good and betterment of their friend. Friends will hurt you if it is necessary, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” (Prov. 27:6) Friends will walk humbly with you, “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8) They will be the closest person to you on this earth, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” (Prov. 18:24) And if necessary, they will die for you. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
And not just because they love you, but because they really like you, they want to be pleasing to you, they want to be around you.
I am one of those fortunate men, “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.” (Prov. 18:22) A woman whom I not only love more than any other person on this earth, but is my best friend here. I have mentioned this before, and it is worth mentioning again, I will not call the Lord Jesus my friend until, and if, He tells me to my face that I can. I think He knows that I like Him, I hope He likes me too.
