The Lodestar

A friend stays with you throughout life on sunny and rainy days. Someone who leaves us when we have to face the harsh realities of life is not a friend.

Since an ideal friendship is being siblings, the words “friend” and “brother” are interchangeable in the Bible. So, “a brother is born for adversity” means being friends is to help each other in times of need.

As individuals become more self-centred, true friendship, as defined in this context, becomes difficult. But Jesus surprises all as he calls his disciples friends, a level that no one who claims divinity had ever condescended to.

“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 15:15).

Joseph M. Scriven, an English preacher who lived in Canada, captured this assurance in the famous hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus?” in 1855. Many Christ-followers sing it gusto when the hope of human help grows dim.

The most crucial aspect of Jesus’ friendship is that he always loves us. Elbert Hubbard, a famous philosopher and writer who lived in the early quarter of the twentieth century, wrote: “A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”

Though he knows we are weak and helpless, Jesus still loves us. He “knows our frame, and he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14). He is our high priest, who “sympathises with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15).

Friends come and go, and even those who stood with us during tough times may leave when things get more complicated, but Jesus, the friend who knows us thoroughly, never leaves us.

If you found this devotion encouraging, forward it to friends to bless them.

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