THE JOY OF BEING FULLY KNOWN BY OTHERS

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

-- John 15:15

Emotionally speaking, there are three basic needs that every single person has: the need to be loved, the need to be understood, and the need to be needed. And I’m convinced that today in OUR SOCIETY, we are seeing the largest gap ever between the amount of emotional need we have and the amount that need is being fulfilled.

The reason this is such a problem in our culture today is that people delude themselves into thinking they have strong friendships, yet they don’t really ‘know’ anyone. They desire emotional closeness but only practice emotional closed-ness by shutting others out.

People want to be loved, understood, and needed. But they refuse to first be known.

Even Jesus had these emotional needs. If anyone could’ve lived life in isolation, it would have been Jesus. Yet he understood these key needs and he surrounded himself with people he called “friends.”

It’s so important that you and I as believers in Christ surround ourselves with people we also call friends. I don’t mean casual acquaintances that you only see every now and then. I’m talking about building intentional relationships with others and truly bearing one another’s burdens in life (Galatians 6:2).

So find people who you can care for and who can care for you, and grow together in Christ. You’ll be amazed when you find out what it’s like to be fully known!

GOD CREATED YOU TO LIVE IN COMMUNITY, SO BUILD INTENTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER BELIEVERS.