What A Friend We Have in Jesus

You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 

—John 15:14-15

All of us battle with seasons of loneliness, wondering if anyone knows, understands, or cares about the burdens we carry or the struggles we face. 

But followers of Christ have an assurance that brings comfort to our weary hearts. 

The comforting presence of the Savior is promised in words that are undeniable, for the psalmist David wrote, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4).

Whether isolated by our own choices, by the cultural trends that surround us, or by the painful losses of life, all who know Christ can rest in the presence of the Shepherd of our hearts. 

What a friend we have in Jesus! 

Winning Friends

Have you heard people speaking nasty words about others lately? Do you see them doing nasty things too? Have you witnessed their friends jeering and cheering them on?

Don't be too surprised! This is exactly what many people in the world are doing right now. If they think they can't beat you, they will try other ways to discredit you and destroy you! And if you think you can't beat them, they think it is better for you to join them!

Winning and losing have become an important part of our lives today. We compete virtually in everything and for everything. We prepare ourselves for every opportunity, every offer, and every situation to challenge one another. We just want to win. Losing is shame to our pride. Even our goodness and cleverness are put into competition today.

And people prefer to side with the winners, and not the losers. So if you are always a loser, you are not only out of the tournaments, you are out of your circle of friends! Winners always stay together, and they make great boast!

I was once like that too. I was once there with my circle of winning friends. Winning is fun! Winning is important! Winning is addictive! Winning must be a regular occurrence! Winning is everything! Winning is the only thing!

But who can win everything? Who can win every time? Everyone will have their falls some time in life. Me too! And so the losers quit, and the winners keep fighting. It is like dog fight, and more dog fights! And losers will just have to retreat and quit!

But it is alright to lose sometimes. We need to learn from our mistakes and then move forward. We need to learn to avoid making the same mistakes twice. In due time, God willing in the near future, we will succeed again.

It's never true that "Once a loser, always a loser." Losers never stop fighting. They continue on, and they will eventually win. They may not be that good fighting in the same red ocean, but they can create a blue ocean of their own. They will then have their new friends and friendships in the blue ocean.

We do not always have to fight in order to win. Some people who like to fight, have in the process, discover that they have won many wars but lost the battle eventually.

Life can be quite miserable without our friends. It's better then, as we grow older and wiser, to win some friends near us or round about us, to accompany us till we breathe our last.

Let's start rather to win friends than fighting personal wars.

The blue ocean would be nice. We are peacemakers, not breeders of strife and contention. We don't want to fight to win!

But we want to seek friends, companions, and partners. We want to nurture our loved ones who nurture us. And we will learn to win their trust and confidence!

Everyone wants to win. Me too! But I prefer to win friends.

Some Glimpses Of Good Friends

If you live to be a hundred,
I want to live to be a hundred minus one day,
so I never have to live without you.

True friendship is like sound health;
the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.

A real friend is one who walks in
when the rest of the world walks out.

When you die,
if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life.

If all my friends were to jump off a bridge,
I wouldn't jump with them,
I'd be at the bottom to catch them.

I'll lean on you and you lean on me and we'll be okay
Friendship is one mind in two bodies.

Don't walk in front of me,
I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me,
I may not lead.
Walk beside me and be my friend.

Everyone hears what you say.
Friends listen to what you say.
Best friends listen to what you don't say.
A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart
and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.

We all take different paths in life,
but no matter where we go,
we take a little of each other everywhere.
Friends are God's way of taking care of us.