My Friend

My Friend

I have a friend, a friend of over twenty years, a bosom friend.  We laugh. We cry.  We pray.  We share.  We need each other.  I learn new things from her and about her.  I miss her when I don’t get to spend time with her.  Often when I call her, she says, “I’ve been thinking about you and was getting ready to call.”

If my need for her is so great, what should my need be for time with my friend, Jesus?  He called me His friend. John 15:15. He has been my friend for more than sixty years.  He has been there when I was tired.  “Come unto me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  (Matthew 11:28) He has been there when my heart was broken and my life seemed to be crumbling.  “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”  Psalm 34:18. He has been there to supply my every need. “The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.”  Psalm 34:10.

I could go on and on.  He has been my life, but have I made an effort to spend time with Him?  To get to know Him better?

Philippians 3:8 and 10 have expressed my stated goal for many years, “I count all things but loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. That I might know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed unto His death.”

I want to know Him better, but I have not always made the effort and the commitment to do that. Sometimes I have had that excitement about my time with Him.  Sometimes I have longed for an awareness of His presence. But not always.  Sometimes I have been rather casual about my time with Him.  Sometimes I have been bored.  I am embarrassed to write that.  I want the overwhelming need of Him to control me.  I want the longing to know Him better to control my life, to be the most important motivator of my life.  I need Him.

“I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every hour I need Thee!

O bless me now, my Savior—I come to Thee!”