'What a Friend We Have...'

Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble. Proverbs 17:17

One true test of friendship is when things are not going well. When stress, tiredness, and worry have taken their toll and you become irritable, cranky, and not much fun to be around. When that occurs look around you and your ‘real friends’ are there while your ‘other friends’ are back peddling double time.

Folks are fickle and those who ride the waves of life only see the surface. Their concern is only waterline deep. A true friend though will stay with you, talk with you, and just ‘hang’ with you when you are not at your best and when you are not giving gifts. A true friend will look you dead in the eye and tell you that your messing things up and that you need to ‘get your act together.’ A true friend will follow you through your fiery furnace and then lead you out; all the while suffering silently all to comfort you.

We are blessed today if we have but one true friend. And if not on this side of glories covering then we have a friend in Jesus. John 15:15 He is there through thick or thin, through good times and bad, through blessing and failure. And through heartache and shame.
Joseph Scrivan, the author of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” knew this through heartache and disappointment: http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2004/004/11.16.html

‘Father, thank you for the gift of friendship. Help me to befriend the friendless, to remember those lonely, to encourage the fearful, and to take my prayers to the greatest Friend of all…’