We All Need Friends

Wives In Touch

with God and one another

Dear Sister In Christ,

It’s been one of those days. Actually, it has been one of those days for about a week now—days where you just have to talk to yourself and your God. These are the days where you thank God for your friends but know they can never, nor should they, take His place.

So beneficial is the impact of friends on ones life that universities are conducting studies and documenting the many benefits. In one such study at UCLA it was said that, “Friendships between women are special. They shape who we are and who we are yet to be. They soothe our tumultuous inner world, fill the emotional gaps in our marriage, and help us remember who we really are…

Scientists now suspect that spending time with our friends can actually lessen physical impairments as we age. Not having close friends or confidants was found to be as detrimental to ones health as smoking or carrying extra weight. Friends help counter the stresses of life. All in all, having friends was found to be a “very healing experience.”

And yet, as one hymn writer accurately declared, “There’s Not a Friend Like the Lowly Jesus.”

Pastors’ wives can often vacillate between two extremes. There are those who desperately long for significant life-giving relationships and those who are satisfied with Jesus alone. Neither is God’s ideal.

Hard times and difficult days can provide the perfect setting where friendships are forged and proven or where God proves Himself. Let’s consider the latter as we take a look at the life of the Lord.

…Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray”. He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will but as you will.”

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the body is weak.” He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time… (Matthew 26: 36-44.).

With his disciples nearby (and three of them especially close) Jesus experienced an agonizing ordeal where his friends were unable to help. These times are necessary and inevitable in the life of every believer. For if we found our friends helpful and “enough” in every situation—we wouldn’t need the Lord.

We all need friends. This truth is seen throughout the pages of Scripture. However, Proverbs 18:24 says, “A [wo]man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” In 1857, Rev. Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached on this verse saying, “…There are those tight friends that will come the nearest to us when we are in the most distress; but those are not friends who speed themselves away when ill times come. Believer, hast thou reason to fear that Christ will leave you now? Has he not been with you in the house of mourning? You found your friend where men find pearls, “in deep, where darkness dwells;” you found Jesus in your hour of trouble. It was on the bed of sickness that you first learned the value of his name; it was in the hour of mental anguish that you first did lay hold of the hem of his garment; and since then, your nearest and sweetest intercourse has been held with him in the hours of darkness. Well, then, such a friend proved in the house of sorrow—a friend who gave his heart’s blood for you, and let his soul run out in one great river of gore—such a friend can and never will forsake you; he sticketh closer than a brother…”

Dear sister, if you find yourself in such a place, now or in the future, you are in good company. It may be a God-ordained season to get to better know your dearest Friend. “There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus, no not one, no not one!”

His love and mine,

Meredith R. Sheppard

Wives In Touch is a ministry of prayer and encouragement for pastors’ wives.
Mail all correspondence to: Wives In Touch, 2803 Breaker Circle, Hayward, CA 94545, USA
msheppard1234@earthlink.net

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