Friends

Hopefully, everyone that reads this today is blessed with friends.  A friend is someone you are fond of or attached to, someone that you have bonded with and shared things with.  We have friends that we see every day and some that we never see but we know they are there for us if we ever need them.  I can’t imagine my life without my friends. Unfortunately, sometimes we may have disagreements or misunderstandings with our friends.  These disagreements can sometimes be about religious beliefs or morality issues.  Sometimes they are because we believe things that are not true or have misconceptions about things. The story of Job shows his relationship with three of his friends.  They came to Job seeming to want to help him in his time of need and comfort him.  But when they attacked him instead comforting him, he felt completely alone.  Job said in Chapter 19, verse 19 “All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.”  What a horrible feeling that must have been!  But even though those men attacked Job, in the end he was shown that he could not carry a grudge or be upset with them.  God told Job to pray for them.  Job 42:10 “After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.”  Friends are very important to our lives and a trustworthy friend is worth more that gold.  The bible tells us in Proverbs 18:24 “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”  I believe that friend is Jesus.  He will never leave us or forsake us.  Even when we feel we are all alone and our friends have rejected us, HE is there.  Today, I pray that we can examine our hearts and ask the Lord to show us if we are a true and trustworthy friend.  “True friendship is seen through the heart, not through the eyes.”