Skip to main content

The Real Reason Jesus Died For You

I love Breakfast With God so much because it provides me with the great opportunity to share personal, life-changing moments with people all over the world.

A few weeks ago, I was at a friend’s birthday get-together, but this was a different type of shindig. While all 20 or so of us guests (all ladies) were there to celebrate my amazing friend, she made her special day really about Someone else. The celebration was all intended to point the attention to God and his overwhelming love for us. I thought that was a fantastic idea.

‘Small chops’ (a sort of Nigerian take on canapés/starters), lots of banter and beautiful worship music later, my celebrant friend, calmly and unknowingly, said the most mind-blowing thing:

I was walking home one evening, with the Lord – I know that sounds strange, but yes, it does happen – by my side, and the Holy Spirit revealed something amazing to me; that this – this closeness, this friendship, this intimacy – is why Jesus really died for us.

What did she just say?

It didn’t take a millisecond for it to sink in before it made complete sense – all the sense in the world, in fact.

“The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit be with you all,” Paul wrote to the church in Corinth (2 Cor. 13:14 MSG).

Friendship is what God wanted – in the beginning and now – more than anything else. The Bible says, in the cool of the day, God would come into the Garden of Eden to commune with Adam and Eve. Note: Not to pass off a bunch of never-ending instructions; not to condemn them; not to put pressure on them to be 'godly'; just to spend time with them. Every single day.

That’s what God wanted from us then, and that’s what he still wants from you today. God seeks to be friends with you first, before anything else. All the moulding, shaping and growing comes after that – as a result of that love, closeness and friendship.

The real reason Jesus died for you was to restore a lost friendship.


Love,

Kunmi x

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Simple, Practical Solution To Reading More of Your Bible

At the beginning of the year, I decided I wanted to read the entire Bible - for the second time - in a year. (I also started using these amazing reading plans on my even more amazing Bible app, YouVersion. It's awesome; check it out! )  My aim is to get more of God's word into my head, mind and heart, and as a result, get to know Him better, as... "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was  God." (John 1:1) Simple, yeah? If God and His Word are one, then by getting to know one more, I get to know the other, right? But to achieve my goal, I obviously had to carve out more time to read God's Word.  Now, truth be told, I often find reading the Bible a little bit tedious (I'll have you know God appreciates my honesty), ESPECIALLY when it gets to certain, not-so-Jesus-loves-you-you-can-do-no-wrong-everything-is-all-GOOD chapters like Numbers, Leviticus and a few others (let's cut them some slack, shall we?). But I rea...
2 comments
Read more

What Teaching Young Kids About The Holy Spirit Taught Me

I'm lucky enough to teach a lovely, lively bunch of children at Sunday School every week. Two weeks ago, at a Saturday session at church, I had learnt more about the Holy Spirit, who He really is and why we have Him (and need Him). Immediately, I thought: Hey, this is a great lesson to teach the kids soon. Yesterday, I decided today would be the perfect day to approach this topic with my young squad. I particularly thought this was a good idea because I needed to learn more about the Holy Spirit. While preparing to teach, I researched how to go about teaching younger children about this not-so-easy topic. You hear so much about God and Jesus, but not that much about the Holy Spirit (which they affirmed today, btw). I got help from this great Sunday School website, which suggested to use a great visual analogy: An egg. An egg is made up of three parts: The shell, egg white and yolk. Although the different parts exist, it's still an egg; each part is 'folded' into ...
2 comments
Read more

What I Really Learnt About Prayer This Week

With prayer and I, it's been a mostly up-and-down relationship. We haven't always seen eye-to-eye, we've fallen out of love quite a few times, and we've oftentimes flat out ignored each other over the years. Luckily, it's been more on the 'up' lately, for which I am super glad, because God knows I need it more than anything. The real transformation came when I realised that I didn't have to say the "right" things when I prayed, speak 'Christianese' (meaningless words that God is supposed to be impressed with), or lie to God about how/what I was feeling. A good friend of mine, Jen, once said, "Don't tell God, 'Oh Lord, I just want to worship Your holy name', when in fact you are about to combust from pain, sorrow, difficulties and frustration." That statement TOTALLY changed the way I pray. Now, that's not to say that I only run to God to cry about my problems (there's ALWAYS something), and I am complet...
Post a Comment
Read more