No one shows greater love than when he lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I don’t call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. But I’ve called you friends, because I’ve made known to you everything that I’ve heard from my Father. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. I have appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. I am giving you these commandments so that you may love one another.

John 15:13-17 (ISV)

 

Following Jesus is about enjoying a friendship with Him.

It is through the strength of true friendship that makes following Him so much easier. Jesus never coerces, threatens, or manipulates people into becoming His followers during His earthly ministry. Instead, He extends a welcome for them to come and share in His love.

In their last time together before His crucifixion and death, Jesus tells His followers that He never considered them to be His servants but rather His friends. Jesus reveals to them everything He had learned from His Father, holding nothing back. This makes it possible for them to take part in His work and share His word everywhere in the world. In the same way, we worship, work, and serve as friends of God. More than just friends, we are sons and daughters who are always about our Father's business.

Our Father will provide us with what we need to fulfil His purpose. The good thing is that we can never be separated from Him because His Spirit resides within us. Any idea of distance between us and God leads to unbelief and keeps us from fully receiving from Him. We have a sense we need to earn God’s love and strive harder to gain what He has already freely given to us. As a result, fatigue and burnout happen because we make ministry more about busyness than fruitfulness.

Fruitfulness comes by abiding in the Lord. It is by keeping this momentum of friendship that we faithfully listen to Jesus and do what He says. In other words, ministry is about enjoying God first and then to love others as He loves us.