2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Friends,
Yesterday I shared the idea that God doesn’t want us to be “Christian Lone Rangers.” That is that He wants us to share our spirituality with others and to encourage each other in faith. God never asks us to do anything without equipping us to do it. One of the ways He does this is to put friends in our lives. While our loving Lord reveals ways for us to discern who really is a friend, we don’t always use them. Often it is because we are immature in our knowledge of His Word or our emotions get in the way. When that happens, we can be disappointed. However, friends can be a source of great strength and fuel our growing maturity in the faith when chosen wisely. It is painful when a friendship fails, but it can also be an opportunity for personal growth. There are times when a good friend can even save your life. Some of the best moments of my life have been spent with dear friends sharing them with me. At one point in my life, I experienced disaster, and it was my friends who came through for me and stuck with me as I worked my way, with the help of my loving Lord, out of it.
The Lord led me to look in the Scriptures to learn about some of the friendships mentioned there. He led me to look at the friendship between a young king David and Jonathan, the son of king Saul. We first meet Jonathan in 1 SAM 13: 1-4 when his father sent him with 1000 men to Gibeah in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin to fight the Philistines. Jonathan killed the Philistine commander at Geba, and news of that event quickly spread to the other Philistines. Later, after David killed Goliath, he was presented to Saul and asked to identify himself to the then king. In 1 SAM 18: 1-5, we learn that Jonathan who was present “was deeply attracted to David and came to love him as much as he loved himself” (1). “Jonathan swore eternal friendship with David because of his deep affection for him” (3). Later, it comes to pass that this friendship would be tested sorely as king Saul begins persecuting David. Jonathan is brought to a crisis of loyalty and belief when he saw that Saul was indeed trying to kill David and decides to help David escape to safety at David’s request (1 SAM 20: 4). The covenant of friendship between them was once again reiterated in 1 SAM 20: 17. Their feelings about each other are clearly shown in 1 SAM 20: 41-42 just before they parted, and David fled from Saul. I hope you will read these chapters of 1 SAM, so you can enjoy the full impact of this wonderful story for yourselves. Sadly, Jonathan was later killed in battle (1 SAM 31: 2).
David’s life-saving friendship with Jonathan was a blessing for him, but not all his friendships were so successful. We know this because in PS 55 he prays the prayer of a person betrayed by a friend. In PS 55: 12-14 he prays, “If it were an enemy that mocked me, I could endure it; if it were an opponent boasting over me, I could hide myself from him. But it is you, my companion, my colleague and close friend. We had intimate talks with each other and worshipped together in the Temple.” As this prayer continues, David shows that he knows and acknowledges God’s omnipotence and compassion by calling on Him for His help. In PS 55: 22-23 he states, “Leave your troubles with the Lord, and He will defend you; He never lets honest people be defeated. But you, O God, will bring those murderers and liars to their graves before half their life is over. As for me, I will trust in You.”
Before I could ever leave the subject of friendship, I would be remiss in not mentioning the precious friendship that existed between Daniel and his fellow Hebrew captives in king Nebuchadnezzar’s court, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (better known by the Babylonian names their captors gave them, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abed-Nego). In DN 1: 8, Daniel made up his mind never to become ritually unclean by eating the food and drinking the wine of the king’s court. As the story of Daniel unfolds, it is clear that this decision was that of a consistently obedient and faithful man to Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Daniel set an example for his friends, and none of them ever gave in to the many temptations to practice idolatry to which they were subjected. This is clearly an example of a friendship crafted by a loving Lord to help the participants remain faithful to Him, sometimes in the face of great threat to their physical lives. Nowhere is this revealed to us more clearly than in the story of DN 3 wherein the three friends refuse to worship king Nebuchadnezzar and are thrown into the fiery furnace (DN 3: 10-11). Once again, our Lord’s sovereign omnipotence and love for the faithful is demonstrated when an amazed king peers into the furnace to see the three friends, unbound, unhurt, and in the company of a fourth man. It is my belief that this fourth man is a theophany, the manifestation of Jesus Christ! (DN 3: 25). Needless to say, their lives are spared, just as our spiritual lives are spared by faithful obedience to God today.
If you are feeling abandoned or disappointed by a friend today, these stories from the Bible should help you to know that God in his higher perspective has a reason for allowing this to happen. However, we should also pay attention to the fact that we are never alone. God brings people together to form friendships to carry out His will. If His will for us is to learn to trust more in Him, then do so as king David did. You will be greatly blessed by that. If His will that we should be brought closer to Him by our association with other believers as Daniel and his three friends were, then let that happen. You will be greatly blessed by it. Imagine Paul’s predicament if he had not found a trusted young friend whom he mentored in Timothy. At the end of Paul’s life, he wrote his second epistle to Timothy in which he expressed his love for Timothy by referring to him as “my dear son” in 2 TIM 1: 2. It is because of Timothy’s presence in Paul’s life that Paul was supplied by a loving Lord with someone who could take over leadership of the church at Ephesus. Paul was in prison in Rome at the time and knew his days on earth were numbered. It is then that he pleads with Timothy to “guard the treasure entrusted to you,” referring to the Gospel (2 TIM 1: 14). Surely that was God’s will.
PRAYER: O Lord, let us come to understand that Your loving hand is in the friendships we from with others. Even when there are disappointments, He may be guiding us to greater wisdom. Give us the discernment to choose our friends wisely from people who will bring us closer to You. Amen.
Perhaps the most comforting aspect of friends in one’s life is the emotional support they give. That is why writing these daily messages is such a blessing to me. Your very presence in my life continues to sustain me through the now 15- month long crisis Peter and I face. But, even if we weren’t going through it, I would be foolish indeed not to appreciate the love that has been coming my way from you. All of you are special blessings in my life, and it is my sincerest belief that we are friends, because it is God’s will that it should be that way. Be encouraged, as I am, that the connection we have made is because a loving and compassionate Lord is there with us using it to bring us closer to Him. Peter and I send you our love and prayers.
Grace and Peace Be With You,
Lynn