Today's Journey
Your Faithful Friend?
Mar.21,2013
http://getmorestrength.org
“For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies” Psalm 57:10
Junior high school can be one long intensive seminar on drama
in relationships. I am convinced that any psychological malfunction in
my life today is directly traceable to those two years of school. Okay,
maybe it’s not quite that dramatic, but junior high did teach me a
little about fickle friendships.
I was minding my own business when one of Nancy’s friends came up to
me and announced, “Hey, did you know that Nancy likes you?” To be
honest, I had never given Nancy a second thought until that moment, but
suddenly I was intrigued. My male ego was suddenly stirred and I liked
the idea of being liked! So I passed my message back through the string
of friends that had conveyed the message to me. That is, of course, how
junior high romance works. I told my friend, who told another friend,
who told Nancy’s friend, who then passed the message back to her.
“Joe says that he likes you too!”
But by the time my message got back to Nancy, she no longer liked me!
For the first time I was singed by the fickle flames of romance.
A lot of our friendships are like that, aren’t they? We look back
across the landscape of life and see different friends popping up here
and there—our buddies from junior high, the girl we took to the prom in
high school, the college roommates, the co-worker from the cubicle next
to us. We realize quickly that many of those friendships, often
consumingly important at the time, fade into dim memories leaving us
thinking, “I wonder what happened to…”
Even more disconcerting is realizing how fickle we are in
friendships. In honest moments, we could list the people we no longer
get in touch with, or the phone calls we don’t return. In life, solid,
faithful-to-the-core friendships are few and far between.
I wonder if you and I bring that same dynamic into our relationship
with Jesus? When we first meet Jesus, He is everything to us! But as
time wears on, we tend to drift away. When was the last time He heard
from you? When was the last time you sat down to hear His voice and
fellowship with Him? As the old saying goes: ”If God seems far away,
guess who moved!” You may have gone on to other interests, but
thankfully He hasn’t lost interest in you. He, more than anyone else,
remains there waiting for you as your faithful friend!
The psalmist often sings of God’s undying love for us. And I need to
tell you that it’s not the kind of love that rides on emotions or
favors. It is an expression of God’s enduring, rock-solid commitment to
you as His beloved, and it is often linked, as it is here in Psalm 57:10,
with His unfailing faithfulness. In fact, the psalmist literally cannot
get his mind around the extensiveness of God’s love and faithfulness,
conceding finally that God’s love “reaches to the heavens” and His
faithfulness “reaches to the skies.” In other words, it is without limit
and without end.
So when you receive word that God loves you, please know that it is
not a junior high school fickle, fleeting kind of love. It is a
life-changing, eternally satisfying offer of a fulfilling friendship
with your Creator. Today He stands knocking at your door wanting to come
in and spend some quality time with you (Revelation 3:20). Go ahead, open the door of your heart—it’s your faithful friend!
YOUR JOURNEY…
- In what ways have you experienced the fickle nature of human relationships?
- How have those experiences shaped your understanding of a relationship with God?
- Read Psalm 108:1-5. How do these verses encourage you about the faithful nature of God’s love?
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