My Forever Friend

The word friend has many definitions. For me, it is someone who is quick to understand, slow to condemn, not afraid to tell me when I am wrong and there when I need some help.

My husband was my friend last night. I was trying to sort out my art supplies for a giveaway and found this emotionally challenging. He could have tried to ‘fix it,’ or ignored me, or missed the fact of my distress, but as a true friend, he offered comfort and encouragement — just what I needed.

James 2:23 says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God.” In the Bible, friendship can also mean believing in someone, in this case, trusting God makes the one who trusts a friend of God.

When someone makes friends, they usually pick others with common interests. They are often in the same age bracket, live nearby, do similar things or have something else in common. Rarely do total opposites become friends, and if they do, someone writes a book or makes a movie about their relationship!

My devotional reading today takes me to Psalm 109:31, another definition of what it means to be a friend. It says, “For He stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save his life from those who condemn him.”

The difference in this description is that God is showing Himself a friend to those who are not like Him at all. What do we have in common with God! Yet He stands by those and befriends those who are needy and condemned, even though He is never needy nor can His life ever be threatened by those who condemn Him.

When I think about friendship in God’s terms, then I should be able to be a friend to people who are not like me and with whom I have nothing in common. In theory that might work, but in practice I doubt it. For most people, friendship goes both ways. I could be kind and act friendly, but even if I did all the right things, if the other person didn’t want to be my friend, then it would be a one-way relationship. I could call them my friend, but they may never call me theirs.

Today’s reading connects perfect friendship to Jesus. As I read it, I realized that only those who call Him their Friend would see and experience Him that way. To me, He is my dearest and closest friend. To those who do not believe in Him or know Him, He is nothing, no matter how good He is or what He has done for them.

In John 15:13-15, Jesus reminds me of both who He is to me and who I am to Him. (I personalized this quote.) “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friend 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 friend.”

I will also slightly paraphrase what the author of today’s reading says about Jesus being my best friend: “Unbelief, the sinfulness of my flesh, and the fearful suggestions of my enemy come forward to condemn me, but Christ Jesus is my Mediator who stands at the right hand of the needy and for me produces His own glorious righteousness. Am I pressed down with unbelief? He communicates faith to my heart. Is my mind sinking into despair? He breathes into it hope. Is my soul bowed down with guilt and at a distance from God where I fear I cannot approach Him because of my heavy temptations? Jesus puts His own arm under my dejected soul and lifts up my bowed head. As He does, my soul looks upward and instead of wrath sees the countenance of the Father who is beaming mercy and love toward me."

Jesus does this because He is my Friend, the One who is standing at the right hand of the needy, a description that fits me perfectly.