A man or woman is unlucky if he or she has no friends. There are good and bad ones. The good ones are the “wind beneath the wings” of their friends, and the bad ones are there only when they can get something out of somebody. The king said that there is a friend that “sticks closer than a brother or sister”, and “a friend loves at all times.” Abraham is known as the friend of God because he was faithful in his relationship with God even when he made mistakes. He loved his wife Sarah, and because he did not want to put her in danger from men who look at beautiful women as fair game..Now I think you can get the drift of my mind when you read this. Fanny Crosby, a blind hymn writer, wrote one of the best hymns about having Jesus as our friend. The song is “WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS”. The first stanza says;“What a friend we have in Jesus/ All our sins and griefs to bear;/What a privilege to carry/ Everything to God in prayer. / O what peace we often forfeit/ O what needless pain we bear/ All because we do not carry/ Everything to God in prayer.. Another hymn written by P.P. Bilhorn goes like this; “Oh, the best friend to have is Jesus/ When the cares of life upon you roll,/He will heal the wounded heart,/He will strength and grace impart;/ Oh the best friend to have is Jesus. /Chorus / The best friend to have is Jesus, the best friend to have is Jesus,/ He will help you when you fall, He will hear you when you call; /Oh the best friend to have is Jesus.
When talking to His disciples he called them friends because all things that he got from the Father, he told them. John 15: 14. 2 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 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.” Jesus’ life exemplifies what real friendship is. He is the friend that sticks to us because he is our Elder Brother.
The clergy of His people hated Him because his friends were the street people, the bartenders, the tax collectors, and prostitutes who crowded Him to hear His words. He loves us so much that He laid down His life for us - His friends. He is our surety, our best insurer for life eternal. I would like to share with us another thought from a writer called Ellen G. White about Jesus being the friend to every human being. She said, “Christ’s dignity as a divine Teacher was of an order higher than the dignity of priests and rulers. It was distinct from all worldly pomp; for it was divine. He dispensed with all worldly display, and showed that he regarded the gradations of society, fixed byopulence and rank as of no value. He had…stepped down from his high command to bring to human beings power to become the sons of God; and earthly rank was not of the least value to Him. He could have brought with Him ten thousand angels if they would have helped Him in His work of redeeming the race.” “Christ passed by the homes of the wealthy, the courts of royalty, the renowned seats of learning, and made His home in obscure and despised Nazareth. His life, from its beginning to its closed, was a life of lowliness and humility. Poverty was made sacred by His life of poverty. He would not put on a dignity of attitude that would debar men and women, however lowly, from coming into His presence and listening to His teaching…. No teacher ever placed such signal honor upon man as did our Lord Jesus Christ. He was known as the Friend of publicans and sinners. He mingled with all classes, and sowed the world with truth. In the market place and the synagogue He proclaimed His message. He relieved every species of suffering both physical and spiritual. Beside all waters He sowed the seeds of truth.
His one desire was that all might have spiritual and physical soundness. He was the Friend of every human being. Was He not pledged to bring life and light to all who would receive Him? Was He not pledged to give them power to become the sons of God? He gave Himself wholly and entirely to the work of soul saving? As He “went about doing good.” Every day’s experience was an outpouring of His life. In one way only could such a life be sustained. Jesus lived in dependence upon God and communion with Him. To the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty, men now and then repair; they abide for a season, and the result is manifest in noble deeds; then their faith fails, the communion is interrupted, and the lifework marred. But the life of Jesus was a life of constant trust, sustained by continual communion ; and His service for heaven and earth was without failure or faltering. As a man He supplicated the throne of God, until His humanity was charged with a heavenly current that connected humanity with divinity. Receiving life from God, He imparted life to men.” Signs of the Times, June 7, 1905. Do you want to be Jesus’ Friend ? He never fails. He has us in the hollow of His hands.
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