We all need friends.
I have some very special friends – some that I don’t see very often, but when I do, we take up right where we left off.
I am an American. Some of my friends are American but many of my friends live in other countries. We communicate by phone, email, or Facebook but there can be great lapses of time between each message. I often wish for a chance to catch up – to have a cup of coffee or tea with that special someone – a person I feel comfortable with, I can relate to, who understands me.
Although I consider myself a friendly person, not everyone I meet falls into that “special someone” category. There are those who do not share my interests, my values, or my faith.
God is the creator of all people, but not every person wants to be close to Him. I take encouragement from those who do and learn from their special relationship with God, such as these biblical characters:
- Noah who found grace in the eyes of the Lord and he and his family were saved from the flood.
- Abraham who was called a friend of God.
- Moses who could talk with God face to face.
- Job whom God called a blameless and upright man.
- Elijah who was known as a man of God.
- Isaiah who was given prophetic visions by God.
- Ezekiel who had the hand of the Lord upon him.
- Daniel who was protected by God in the lion’s den.
- The virgin Mary who was highly favored, chosen to be the mother of the Savior.
- John, the apostle, who called himself “the one whom Jesus loved”.
Jesus makes it possible for each of us to have a personal relationship with Him. His miraculous birth, His sinless life, His sacrificial death and His bodily resurrection is a gift of grace to those who chose to believe in Him. There don’t have to be any lapses of time for communication – we can talk with Him constantly. Especially comforting is – like Abraham – we are His friends. And like John, He loves us completely.
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you” (John 15:13-15).
One Focus Ministries 