Matthew 26:50: "But Jesus said to him, 'Friend, why have you come?' Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and took Him."

Judas has just come with the soldiers to betray Jesus with a kiss.  Jesus responds, by calling Judas friend. 

If someone betrays you, I am sure that you are not thinking of them as a friend at the moment.  I am sure other words come to mind. 

One more thing, Jesus knew this was coming, so He had plenty of time to prepare a response, and again He looks at Judas, smiles, and says, friend.

Why is this such an important verse?  At some point in our Christian walk, we will realize in our minds that we have let Jesus down.  We will think that Jesus can’t love us anymore.  We will wonder if we are worth it to Him. 

The bad news is, Jesus won’t call you friend.  The Good News is, when you come humbly to Him, He will lift your head and look at you, and because of the resurrection, say, "My Child, I love you. What can I do for you today?" 

Romans 8:28: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

Why do we worry?  It's because we wonder what the end result will be.  We then try to predict the future by going down the road of the what ifs.

Jesus gave us this promise, to take all of our worries away.  This verse tells us what the end result will be.  It WILL BE GOOD!  It also allows you to not think about the what ifs.  You can just live your life knowing that everything will work out.

In 1988, Bobby McFerrin wrote a song with these lyrics.

"In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double. Don't worry.  Be happy.  Don't worry.  Be happy now."

If, oops, when, we live the above scripture verse, we can approach life much differently, knowing the end will be good.  Then we can enjoy the journey and watch and see what God does to make it work out for good.  We can then be amazed at how much God loves us!

What is prayer?  Most will answer that it is talking to God.  Have you ever been talked “to”.  It is not fun.  Prayer is actually talking with God.  "With" is the key word, because both people get to talk.

How many people wish that they could talk to, oops, I mean, with, God?  Well, that is why we don’t hear God in our lives.  Most people like to talk to God and not give God a chance to speak back.  They want to tell God what they want or need.  Then they say amen and go on their way. 

If you want to hear God more in your life, you may want to consider if God wants or needs something? 

When you decide to pray, add this, "God, do you need or want anything from me?"  It will take your whole conversation to the next level, because now the door is open to a real conversation.

Trust me, God wants to have a real conversation with you that both of you will enjoy.  Then this verse will become meaningful in your life.  You do not have to pray 24 hours a day, but once you take time to listen to God too, you will look forward to speaking with Him and listening to Him so much that you'll wish that it wouldn’t stop.

When your relationship with God gets to that point, God will be so real to you.  God will also be more inclined to move spectacularly in your life, because communication is the key to any great relationship!

I John 4:19:  "We love Him because He first loved us."

Easter is just around the corner, but without this verse, Easter would not be possible.

Imagine if we had to prove to Jesus that we were His worth love in the first place?  God cannot look at sin, and we have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and fallen short of the Glory of God. If not for this verse, we would all be lost forever.

This verse tells us that before we chose anything, good or bad, Jesus said He loved us.  Loved is in the past tense.  This means Jesus made a decision about us that He will not take back.  That is why He died on the cross.  Not because we did anything to earn or deserve the right to go to heaven.  He died on the cross because He decided to love us no matter what, and he offered us the chance to be forgiven, no matter what we had done, because He loved us FIRST!

This is the ultimate message of Jesus to everyone.  He loves you!  If you want forgiveness, it is yours, and He wants you to take it.  Why?  It's because He simply loves you, just because!