~ A Good and faithful friend ~

By

Mrs. Lovena Fernando

 

 

Friendship day - a great reason to celebrate!  All the shopping malls are filled with varieties of friendship bands, flowers, cards and unique gifts.   Many web pages have vast collections of friendship quotes and colorful e-cards.   What's life without a friend? Dull, colorless...  unimaginable isn’t it?  Friendship is present at all ages and stages of life: Who can become a friend? Or what makes someone a good friend?

I want you to take a minute and think:  do your friends accept you as you are? Do they care about you, forgive your mistakes and really make you laugh? Can you name one FRIEND who has all the above qualities in him/her always?  I know its difficult… at some point of time our friends turn away… sorry, don’t mistake me I’m not blaming friends; I am a friend myself for someone.   Even I cannot say that I have all the above qualities as a friend.  

 

You know, I am proud that I can name a FRINED who has all the above qualities in him… who has never changed… he is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  I really need to tell you about my friend.   This friend accepts me just the way I am; Forgives my mistakes; Cares for me in a very special way; I can always trust on him; Eager to know who this Friend is? He’s none other than

~JESUS~

JESUS is a Good and faithful friend…

Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so…

Lets see what the bible tells us about Jesus being a Good and Faithful friend…

 

Jesus forgives our mistakes

Peter was one of Jesus' closest friends and disciples.  Peter walked on water with Jesus, Peter was with Jesus on the mountain of transfiguration.  Peter even cut off a guard’s ear when they arrested Jesus.  Jesus warned Peter that he would deny Him.  But Peter bragged that he would never deny being a follower of Jesus.  However, on the night that Jesus was arrested Peter broke that promise.  In fact Peter broke it more than once. 

When things go wrong, we need friends, don't we? Jesus needed friends, too! But they all ran away from him.  And now even Peter, one of his closest friend denied him.  Peter felt so bad about what he did that he cried and cried.  The wonderful thing is that Jesus forgave Peter and gave him a second chance.   Because Peter was forgiven it made Peter even stronger in Loving Jesus.  Peter became a mighty leader for Jesus Christ.  He led many people to believe in Jesus Christ. 

Jesus will forgive you of your mistakes.  He loves you just the way you are.  He shows love, grace, mercy and friendship.

Jesus cares for us:

A real friend cares about you.  They laugh with you when you are happy.  They cry with you when you are sad, and they care about you when you are sick.

Jesus cared for His friends, Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary, were very close friends of Jesus.  Jesus often stayed with them when He visited the village of Bethany.    Remember Lazarus getting sick and dies, the great miracle Jesus preformed by raising Lazarus from dead. 

Jesus cares for you; He showed His love by caring for us.  Jesus loves you too.  He believes in you, encourages you and heals you when you are sick.

Jesus is Trustworthy

 Jesus is faithful in guiding you safely through life.   The Bible says about a man named Jairus who lived with his wife and a daughter who was 12 years old.   He loved his daughter very much.  Just like our parents love us.   One day his daughter became very sick and died.   When Jesus heard this he went to his house with his disciples, took the little girl's hand, the little girl arose from the dead! Jesus had called her back to life! Can't you imagine how excited the family and friends were! They must have been jumping with joy.   Jairus was glad that he had trusted Jesus, and put his faith in Him.   Jesus was trustworthy. 

Jesus gives us hope of eternal life, because He has risen from the dead to be alive forever.  One day He will raise those that believe in Him to live forever with him.  We have a great hope and a great God. 

Jesus is more than enough.

Do you remember Mary of Bethany the women in the Bible who realized that God’s love was  more than enough for her.  She was not famous for the great things she did or said, but she goes down in history as a woman who truly loved Jesus with all of her heart and she was not embarrassed to show it despite criticism from others.   Mary brought out her bottle of expensive perfume and poured the expensive perfume over Jesus' head and then poured the rest of the perfume on Jesus' feet.  She then wiped His feet with her long, beautiful hair. 

God created mankind in His likeness.  God loves us, and He created us to desire a deep love that only God can fulfill.  Because we have the desire to be loved we sometimes find ourselves searching for love from someone, or find something that will fill the void and give us peace.  But only a deep and intimate (close) relationship with God will ever truly satisfy us. 

 

Jesus’ love is more than enough for us.  Many times we seek love from a person of the opposite sex, and become disappointed when we do not feel loved as deeply as we need and desire.

Jesus accepts us just the way we are

 Mary was from the City of Magdala, by the Sea of Galilee.  Mary was tormented by demons, not just one demon but seven.   Mary was sad and lonely.  No one wanted to be friends with a woman who was tormented by demons.  Mary felt as if no one would ever truly love her.   Then something totally unexpected happened to Mary.  Jesus came to her town, and when Jesus passed by Mary the demons fled from her.  Right away Mary had noticed that something was different.  Her body and mind were at peace. 

Jesus accepted and loved her for who she was.  He looked her straight in the eyes and told her about God's love for Her.  Never before had Mary seen so much love and kindness from anyone. 

 

Jesus accepts us where we are and changes our hearts and life forever!

Conclusion:

Jesus is the best of everything we look for in a friend.   He wants to be your very best friend, and He wants you to be His!  The Bible shows that Jesus was a very friendly person.   People wanted to be around Jesus.   They wanted to be His friend.  Jesus' last message to His disciples was that He wants to be our friend.” … But I have called you friends, … (John 15:15)”

~ Make Jesus your FRIEND today
He is waiting for you… to celebrate ~

@ Happy Friendship Day @