I really hope you have had a great week with your Lord who is so good.

Do you remember the song “What A Friend We Have In Jesus”?  I’m sure most all of you do. It is usually a song we remember from our childhood and is still sung in the more traditional churches.  It is of course a song that carries with it the idea that Jesus is our friend. 

I’ve been reading the book Shattered Dreams by Dr. Larry Crabb, and he makes some very profound points; some of which I’m still mulling around in my mind. I highly recommend this book.

One of the concepts he tackles is the idea of friendship and how we pick our friends.  When we think of friends, our friends inside the church, our friends outside of the church, and our friendship with Jesus; just how do we define a friend?  How do we choose our friends?  Do we choose them by what they are willing to do for us or by what we do for them?

Dr. Crabb says if we were honest with ourselves, were we to make a list of our closest friends, it would probably be a list of those who have done the most for us.  That would certainly be the case with Jesus as our friend.  I like to think my closest friends are those whom I’ve shared God’s word with and who have shared God’s word with me.  That could be more the product of friendship rather than what defines a friend.  But I maintain my church family, those I’ve discipled, and those who have had a part in discipling me are my closest friends.

Dr. Crabb makes the point that many of us choose our friends more for what they do for us than what we do for them.  Satan loves to make us feel guilty for this.  My wife likes to say to those who are refusing her gift, “Do you want to steal my blessing?”  When I think about that it is much deeper than it appears on the surface. 

But that is exactly how it is with God.  In truth we can do nothing for him except receive of Him.  Even when we give him our lives, without everything that God brings to the table, we are incapable to being a blessing to Him or anyone else.  There is none good, no not one (Matthew 19:17).  Aren’t you glad we are “in Christ” and that he IS good? 

Satan’s little guilt trips over how we choose friends, and even how we serve God, are but a lie. Didn’t Jesus say it was more blessed to give than to receive?  Should we then feel bad by having friends that give more to than they receive from us?  And besides hasn't God put them into our life?  What can we do but receive of God regardless of whom he uses to bless us.  

God desires to continually give to us and has the power to bless us with all things.  He gives because that is his nature, and he is GOOD!  

The rub is what we think is good for us and what he knows is good for us.  Aren’t we the same with our own children?  Don’t we withhold things from them sometimes because we know the time is not right or that it would not truly be a blessing to them? 

In Larry Crabb’s book Shattered Dreams he makes the point that God sometimes seems far from blessing us and allows our dreams to shatter because they are too low, not worthy of all he wants to do in our lives.  It is through our shattered dreams that we seek what is highest and best; HIM, and that should be our ultimate goal (Matt.6:33). 

My point is this; God wants to give us more than we can even imagine, and will because he truly is good and loves us beyond what we can imagine.  He understands what is good for us and what is not, and the real key to receiving his blessings is learning of him and desiring him, not our fleshly desires. It is when we truly seek Him that we find our prayers answered.

I praise the Lord for the friends he has given me, those who can point me to truth during those times I can’t seem to find it, even when its right in front of me.

I pray we will all seek Him and his righteousness before all else this next week.

God bless you,

Bob