Best Friends

      By Pastor Jeff

Abraham and Moses had a wonderful distinction in the word of God in that they were each called “Friends of God”.

In the present generation it seems that the word “friend is taking on an entire different definition than it was when I was and many of you were growing up. Back in the day friends were guys and gals that did things together like play baseball, football, basketball games, sometimes just playing catch (I mean outside, not on a TV, computer, or phone), we went to the park, mall, movies together, and even sometimes just hung out together really doing nothing.

Now when you talk about friends the discussion ends up about the friends you have  on the “Social Networks”, what used to number in the handfuls now numbers in the hundreds and sometimes thousands. I’m not challenging the thought that these people are not indeed your friends but these cannot fulfill the definition of what is a “Best Friend”.

Research tells us that we make an average of 400 friends in our lifetimes but keep only a handful of these throughout your lifetime. Proverbs 18:24 says, “A man that hath friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” So to make friends we only have to show others that we are friendly, really not that hard is it?

But “Best Friends” are not as easy, I quote my friends the Minions’ “Making a hundred friends is not a miracle. The miracle is to make a single friend who will stand by your side even when the hundreds are against you”. Proverbs 17:17 puts it this way, “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”

Best friends are in it for the long haul, they will, accept you, help you, love you just the way you are with all your faults, they may even be willing to give their life for you. We can search the word of God and find many relationships that would fulfill this definition, David and Jonathan are one that comes quickly to our minds, but probably the strongest one is the one between Ruth and Naomi. Here we have two people with entirely different backgrounds and no doubt Naomi was older than Ruth but they formed a friendship that is recorded forever, When Naomi’s husband and her two sons pass away she decides to return to her homeland Israel, she tells Ruth and her sister to not follow her, to return to their homes, but Ruth’s reply is found in Ruth 1:16-17, And Ruth said, “Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.” The rest of the story is that “Ruth goes back with Naomi, marries Boaz has a son who she gives to Naomi whose name is Obed the grandpa of King David. With best friends miracles can happen!

Aristotle said, “What is a friend? a single soul dwelling in two bodies.” Jesus in John 15:12-15 calls us friends also, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you“. I don’t know about you,but Jesus is not just a friend to me, but he is my Best Friend!

What kind of friend do you want others to call you? Do you want to be a “friend” or do you rather be a “Best Friend”? the choice in many cases is up to us but it will cost you at times and I’m not just talking financially, when you expose your heart sometimes it will get broken. But once you become “Best Friends” you will form a bond that cannot be easily broken and one you will never regret. I challenge you to make Jesus Christ your “Best Friend”, and like Abraham it will be a friendship that will last forever! Today make Jesus your “Best Friend!”