A Most-Worthy Friend
C.S. Lewis once said: “A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.”
We know people. If fact, we might even say: “So and so are ‘my’ people,” and when we refer to “my” people or to “your” people, who comes to our minds? Stand still for a moment and allow the images of the people who are parading through our mind to play as a slideshow. See their faces; hear their voices; see their actions; touch them; intake the odor they bring to our lives; and taste the difference how their presence changes the flavor of our world.
We have stood still for a space of time, allowing the slideshow to play, reflecting “our” people in our minds. If you have lived many years as I, then the slideshow took some time, as the images traveled back in time, going all the way back to our childhood. Yes, that’s correct. We have gathered “people” from the day we left our parents’ home and went outside to play. It was there, outside the home, where we encountered other people: some would become our friends and some would not. Then, at the end of our day of play, we ran back home, and there, inside the home, we may have returned to our friends (brothers, sisters, and cousins) living with us in the home: some were our friends and some were not.
Nevertheless, the point is this—We have people, “friends,” and we have gathered this precious commodity since the beginning of our lives.
Today, let us see a friend who does not come or go, One who is true, One who knows our hurts, secrets, struggles, and our sins, and One who stands beside us through everything this life brings to our days.
Read with me God’s Word to understand this promise from God.
“But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
(Proverbs 18: 24b NASB)
When we are born, we were not given the opportunity to select our family; they just became our family because God chose them for us, and then He placed us there, in the arms of “our family.”
When we are born—again, we are given the opportunity to choose to belong to the eternal family of God, one that God chose for us, and one that He created with a place for every man, woman, and child.
Once we choose to belong to the family of God, we receive the most-important friendship—EVER! That’s right; we gain the friendship of Jesus. We cannot do anything to earn His friendship because Jesus does it all: He reaches out to us; He draws us to Himself; He takes hold of our heart, changing us from the inside out and filling us with Himself; and it is Jesus, who takes the first step toward us, drawing us into this intimate relationship.
What an AMAZING FRIEND we have in JESUS!
JESUS is a MOST-WORTHY FRIEND!
We are so privileged, so blessed, to have a FRIEND in JESUS CHRIST, our SAVIOR!
He holds our hand and allows us to walk beside Him.
He “sticks closer than a brother.”
- We talk as we walk together: He talks and we listen, and we talk and He listens, bring calm to our hearts.
- We play as we walk together: He reveals His will for our days, and we discuss all the tasks He has for us to do as we go through our days—together—Jesus and me & Jesus and you.
- We cry together as we go, and when the tears come, not only does Jesus wipe them away from our face, but Jesus also collects them and stores our tears in a bottle that He keeps in His Father’s house, in heaven. The Bible proclaims this to be true. Moreover, as our tears come, as our hearts hurt, it is our friend, JESUS who comforts us when we are hurting, and who helps us understand how God uses all situations for good for those who love Him. The Bible proclaims this to be true.
As Lewis said, Jesus can become the FRIEND “who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.”
Our friend JESUS is the only name of the friend that we will never forget, and in fact, JESUS is the only name that really matters. As we walk together throughout the days we are given to live, we are given the blessed opportunity to share with others about our FRIEND NAMED JESUS.
IT IS UP TO US IF WE DO!
IT IS UP TO US IF WE REMAIN QUIET—OR—IF WE SHARE ABOUT OUR FRIEND—JESUS—OUR SAVIOR—THE ONE “WHO STICKS CLOSER THAN A BROTHER.”
The band Skillet sings a melody titled “Brave,” a song that reminds us how the Spirit of God resides inside us when we know Jesus Christ. Through the lyrics, we hear how we can walk along through any situation because we know that we know that we know—it is JESUS who is there in His Spirit—going with us everywhere we go, through everything we endure, and even coming to get us whenever it’s our time to come home to heaven.
HE IS THERE—JESUS IS—WITH US NOW, WITH US TOMORROW, AND WAS WITH US YESTERDAY!
CAN WE SHOUT, “HALLELUJAH, THANK YOU, LORD JESUS!”
Finally, there are some people who we will encounter today, earthly friends who know us well, family members who grew up knowing us, acquaintances who know us, co-workers who work beside us; and even strangers who will pass us.
As we encounter these, the question becomes: Will we be the gateway as we introduce them to our FRIEND JESUS?
The Apostle Paul met his FRIEND JESUS one day when he did not expect to encounter Jesus, as Saul walked along the road, headed toward Damascus. That day, Jesus spoke to Saul through the voice of God, and miraculously, the persecutor of Christians, Saul, became the Apostle Paul, the believer, the Christian, a friend of JESUS, that day. If we could go back in time to ask the man Saul if he expected to meet Jesus that day, we can rest assured that Saul exclaimed, “Why, no, of course not,” but Saul did, that day: MEET JESUS!
It is the Apostle Paul, the changed man, the man who now knows the FRIEND JESUS, who wrote these words while sitting inside a prison, chained to a guard, imprisoned for preaching about his FRIEND JESUS WHO changes lives and gives to us the most wonderful gift possible: Salvation!
“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 1: 6 NASB)
JESUS: OUR FRIEND!
JESUS: OUR SAVIOR—THE ONE “WHO STICKS CLOSER THAN A BROTHER!”
JESUS: the FRIEND “who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words!”
JESUS: A MOST-WORTHY FRIEND!
JESUS: WHO WILL BRING US HOME ONE DAY!
JESUS: DO WE KNOW HIM?
JESUS HIMSELF said:
“For God so loved the world, [loved us] that He gave His only Son, [JESUS] so that everyone who believes in Him [in JESUS] will not perish, but have eternal life [in the presence forevermore with GOD & with JESUS].”
(John 3: 16 NASB)