May Your reign be forever, My Lord, for You have proclaimed in Your Word that “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learn from the Father I have made known to you”. The greatest evidence of Your friendship is Your loyalty … through loving me at all times … bearing my burdens … and, making Yourself available to help me in times of distress and personal struggles. Therefore, I know I can call out Your name and You’ll be there to help me. When I am down and troubled and need a helping hand … whenever nothing is going right and everything seems to be going wrong … I’m confident You will be there because I have a friend. What makes being Your friend so special is that a friend loves at all times and closeness is born out of adversity. Though I have many acquaintances, I still find myself alone and need a helping hand but, in Your friendship, I find love, compassion and the lift I need when I am down.
Help me avoid friendship with the world for it involves seeking pleasures at others expense or at the expense of disobeying You. I’ve come to recognize the world’s seductive attractions as only cheap substitutes for what You have to offer me. Help me understand that friendship with the world is hatred toward You. And those who curry favor with me are likely to remain friends only when I give them what they want or access to things they do not have. I know that You are a true friend because You persist in changing my heart and mind to do good and helping me understand the effort required to reach my goals. I know that in my darkest times, if I will shut out the world and think about You and how blessed I am … You will be there to change my darkness into light.
I marvel at the fact that whenever I call out, You know where I am and You come quickly to my aid. If the sky above me turns dark and ominous clouds come rushing into my day, I have no reason to fear because You will help me stand strong. You’ve told me that when I need You, I should persist in asking and seeking until I find You. How faithful You are to me … for no greater love has one for another than to lay down his life for a friend. In doing so, You’ve clearly acted on my behalf so that I’d know that I have a friend. I believe that, in turn, I can show You my friendship by taking up my cross to follow You. Like You, all of those I call a friend, I must be willing to practice unconditional love and be there for them in their times of need. In the same way that Abraham believed what You promised him and it was counted to him as righteousness and he became Your friend … I too want to believe Your words so that it can be credited to me as righteousness and I can be called a friend. And it’s in Jesus’ name. AMEN!!
Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity.