10. Jesus is called Savior, Lord, Teacher, and Friend. These titles show me different kinds of relationships I can have with God.

Which of these four images of Jesus is most often how you think of God?

What image would you like to have of God?

What image do you sense Jesus inviting you into?

Because we know that we have offended God and deserve His punishment, most of us begin our walk with God with a recognition of our sinfulness, our brokenness, and our need for healing and salvation. As Savior, Jesus provides this for us. 

In our journey to know God better, Jesus becomes more than just our Savior, He becomes Lord, someone we serve and obey. So-called “blind obedience” can be a healthy stage on our journey. After all, it is important to trust and obey God, even when we don’t understand the reasons for what He is asking us to do. 

As we continue to grow, God desires for us to come to know and understand His ways. At this stage as we start to discover the deeper relational truths about God, Jesus, through God’s Spirit, becomes our Teacher. He helps us understand the truth that He says will give us freedom and abundant life. 

At the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus calls His disciples His friends. This “friendship with God” can also be a stage in our journey. The changing nature of our relationship with God is a normal and good process. 

In our human families, we related to our parents differently as children than we did as adolescents. And our relationship with our parents continued to change as we became adults. This is healthy and natural. 

What stage we find ourselves in in our relationship with God is not as important as the continuing maturing of that relationship. God’s love for us does not change from one phase to the next for God loves us completely and fully in every phase. What does and should change is the quality of our relationship with God.