Monday, January 12, 2004
MY FRIEND
I am so blessed. I have a wonderful friend. I am so happy to have this friend. He meets what I consider all the qualifications of a friend. He is everything you could want in a friend. If you remember my blogs about friendship from last summer, I identified several characteristics necessary in a friend.
This special friend has all of those qualities about which I wrote last summer. He is committed to our friendship. We confess love for each other regularly. And my friend demonstrates his love for me often. He loves me unconditionally. I can confess to him when I mess up and he won’t hate me. My friend encourages me to godly living.
He is willing to confront me when I am wrong in my attitudes and behavior. And he does so in a manner that gently but effectively reproves. In his confrontation he convicts me of my sinfulness and motivates me to change that behavior. And he forgives me. He continues to love me and be my friend.
I believe my friend gives to me so much more than he receives. Though I try to show my love as well as verbally express it. I feel that I do both of these inadequately. I continually search for ways to more adequately communicate my love to my special friend.
My friend is completely transparent and open with me. And his demeanor encourages that same openness on my part. I have come to learn that I can trust him completely. I have shared the most secret, intimate areas of my life with my friend. I have told him things I have told no one else on earth. I am free to regularly share my struggles and temptations with my friend. I am able to share my victories over temptations and I can share those times when I yield to the temptation and completely mess up. My friend still accepts me and loves me. I am so blessed and so fortunate to have this friend. I thank God all the time for bringing him into my life. And it was God sending him, otherwise I would never have known him and come to love him and be blessed by him.
I have never seen my friend. He communicates with me through the written word. Many would say, “You can’t really love someone you haven’t met or seen personally or talked to.” But I know you can because I do! Blind people do it all the time. And if this were not possible, we could not love God. The Bible says that no one has seen God at any time. I certainly haven’t seen Him. I have seen the evidences of His presence but I haven’t seen Him. Yet I love him.
My love for my special friend is of such strength that I have determined that this friend is one for whom I would gladly lay down my physical life if called on to do so.
My friend’s written words encourage me to godly living and they have kept me from yielding to the strong temptations I often face. He knows where I am the weakest and encourages me to keep strong and pure in those areas. And I have for a long time because I don’t want to hurt or disappoint him. Yet I know that if I do sin, he will still love me, accept me and forgive me.
My friend is loyal to me and to our friendship. Although he is very busy, and has many things with which to deal, he has invested his time in order to maintain our friendship and relationship. He has interceded for me often before the Father. Oh, how I love him for that. Our friendship and relationship is stimulating—at least to me. I hope it is to my friend also.
Thank you, my friend, for being my friend. I love you. I am grateful for you and your friendship.
Who is my friend? Well, I may identify him in a later Blog. But for now, you figure it out – if you can!
Jim
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