What a Friend We Have In Jesus

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” [Ps 46:10 ESV]

“…and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”–and he was called a friend of God.” [Jas 2:23 ESV]

While the gratitude we’ve expressed this past Thanksgiving is still full in our hearts, I am sure many of you especially remember the thankfulness you have for your close friends–the ones you can count on to pray for you when you are in deep need, to exhort you when you wane in your devotions, to make you laugh when everything seems too serious, to love you when you fail, and even correct you when you are wrong. We cherish people like this. It is such a blessing to have fellowship with one another. It is just as the scripture says: “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” [Prov 18:24 ESV]

The sense here is not that we can’t have many friends; the relationships just need to be more than superficial. The Hebrew word for “companion” may also be translated friend, but the Hebrew word for “friend” in the above passage means, when constructed a certain way, someone beloved, someone that we have a two-way, close-knit relationship with who knows us as well as we know them. The danger in having too many friends is that it doesn’t encourage these deep relationships, and we never learn to trust and be trusted with all our closely-guarded hurts and fears.

Having said all that, I remembered the other day that Jesus calls all of His disciples His friends:

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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 15:12–15 ESV]

I have always associated these verses primarily with Jesus laying down His life for us and the idea that we should lay down our lives for each other. But I’m missing the most important part: we are friends of Jesus when we obey Him and lay down our lives for Him. Now, I’ve been praying about choices I need to make, a decision between two paths I could take. I’ve been specifically praying to know the Lord’s will on the matter, and now He has honored that prayer. Through much scripture reading, I discovered that in matters where we have freedom to choose, choosing Christ is always the better part. My desire for the other path I could have chose is now gone, and the Lord has blessed me with joy and peace for choosing well.

So, beloved, I’d like to encourage you to do the same. And to choose Christ above all our other earthly desires takes time, period. It takes extra time in prayer, extra time studying His word, extra time reading what earlier Christian sages and saints have written. To be a man or woman after God’s own heart takes quiet places to meditate on His word.

So, dear brothers and sisters, do you take the time to be with your Friend among friends? Or do you find yourself just too busy? Be honest. I had to be. How can you listen for His still small voice while being distracted by the demands and clamor of earthly, even worldly, voices? And we have an abundance of distractions! This time of year brings to mind sales to be had, shopping to be done, football games to watch, preparations for celebrations, trimming the tree, special dinners, cookie-baking–all the hubbub of the holidays. There is nothing inherently wrong with these things…but do they take precedence over our quiet time with the Lord?

Jesus calls us friends. He is the ultimate “friend of sinners.” The Lord of all creation and King of kings desires for you to return the favor. He sacrificed all of His heavenly glory so that we all might reflect His glory, too. Would you ignore your friends when they have sacrificed so much for you? Then take time to pray. Talk to your Savior. Listen to Him through His word. Spend time reading devotionals or sermons from well-known and respected Christian teachers and preachers. I highly recommend Charles Spurgeon’s Morning & Evening devotional book, or any of his sermons that can be found online for free. By the way, did you know that Spurgeon did not have a college education? Yet he wrote and preached as if he had wonderful mastery of the English language and a doctorate in theology. He was taught by the Holy Spirit. We all are, too. And school is always in session! There is such a rich reward and sublime peace when we seek God with all our hearts.

Just a passing thought: please don’t be guilted into doing anything because you know you “should” do it. That is not what the Lord wants. He wants us to think, “I get to do this. It is a privilege to know the Lord and worship Him in this way.” We need this time alone: “man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” [Matthew 4:4] He wants love to motivate us. He wants our hearts to be knit to His in a close relationship. Where our treasure is, our hearts will be also.

I wanted to mention that I was looking for a Christian meme to send a friend a Thanksgiving blessing, and stumbled across this one by R. C. Sproul that really touched my heart:

“God doesn’t just want us to feel gratitude, but for us to show it by giving thanks to God with our lives.”

And we do get caught up in emotions, it’s true. But in all those emotions, whether it be faith, hope, love, gratitude, or joy, we need to act it out, or bear the fruit that gives them their very power. Otherwise, an emotion is just an emotion. It’s rather hollow when there is no substance behind it. It would kind of be like a man proposing to someone he professed to love without giving her a ring or even showing up at the wedding!

In closing, I wanted to comment on the main scripture quoted from Psalm 46 at the beginning of this post. Did you notice that we need to be still BEFORE we can know that the Lord is God? It’s not until we are still that we know our Lord is completely sovereign and in control of everything that happens to us. Then we can experience peace, even in the midst of great sorrow or a grievous trial. Because, beloved, we can know that the Lord is God, and yet not be still. Both in our quiet time and in our trials. We can’t be. Have you ever tried to listen to someone when you’re busy doing something else? C’mon, cell phone people! I’ve tried doing it. I don’t get much out of what they are saying. I have to bring myself out of my reverie and apologize. Thank Goodness Himself for forgiveness!

The Lord has much to teach us. Let’s be attentive students. Let’s be still. He can command the sun to stand still and the moon to stop. If they obey, shouldn’t we? Amen.

“He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.” [Ps 23:2 ESV]

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