A Beautiful Friendship — Part 2 — Morning Devotions

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You’re better off to have a friend than to be all alone, because then you’ll get more enjoyment out of what you earn. If you fall, your friend can help you up. But if you fall without having a friend nearby, you are really in trouble. Their words from Ecclesiastes, Chapter four, Verse nine and 10.

Now for nearly 15 years, Jim Baker, the television evangelist, headed up his own Christian television network in the United States, Jim Baker. He was well known. His life, unfortunately, went horribly wrong when he was convicted of fraud.

And then, in 1989 Jim Baker was sent to prison for eight years, and it was the darkest period of his life. Actually, he had plenty of time in that dark area of his life to reflect on the mistakes he’d made. He wrote a book called Baker: I was Wrong.

It’s very interesting. He refers in the book to the help he received from Billy Graham and the Graham family and especially his son Franklin Graham.

The Graham family found a house for him to live in. They gave him a car, and on the first Sunday that he was released from prison. Ruth Graham, that’s Billy Graham’s wife, invited him to attend church with her. So when he got there, the pastor of the church welcomed him, and he sat with the Graham family. There were two rows of these people or connected to Billy Graham’s family.

While the organ started playing and the place was full. And there’s one spare seat. And that was next to where Jim Baker was sitting and Ruth Graham walked down the aisle and sat next to Jim.

So she sat next to an ex-prisoner. He’d been out of prison for only 48 hours. But do you know, in that simple act, she told the world that morning that Jim Bakker was her friend.
Now that’s the kind of friendship. Of course, that really does mean something now. People probably would have understood if Billy Graham and his family had kept their distance from Jim Baker. But that wasn’t the option because Jim Baker had been their friend for a long time. It made mistakes, some serious mistakes, but that didn’t change the fact that friendship is not fickle. It doesn’t come and go. If you’ve got a close friend, that friend will stay with you. Whatever happens.

It’s like what the Bible says in Proverbs 18:24, “Some friends don’t help, but a true friend is closer than your own family”. Tremendous strength, isn’t it? To know that that ties there in the Old Testament we read of David and Jonathan are saw was the king of Israel during one of the war’s David, who was a young shepherd, slew the giant Goliath, and from then on David and Jonathan – Jonathan was Saul’s eldest son – became very good friends.

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David was a shepherd. Jonathan was the commander of 1000 soldiers in the Saul’s Army and despite some very different backgrounds, they did share friendship. They were brave, successful. They had great confidence in each other and if you know the Bible story. On one occasion, David was running for his life from Jonathan’s father, Saul, who wanted him dead, and Jonathan even risked his own life to protect David. They had actually promised to be friends. In fact, Jonathan said,

Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it for you now. That’s a really good basis for friendship. It sounds good, doesn’t it? In the good times. But when the difficult times come, does it really matter? Friends, I think, will not be sitting on the sidelines. They’ll be there to help. And there will come, I guess. Storms in our relationships with people. It’s good to know we can trust our friend.

So Christian love is not so much about feeling as it is about the will. It was C. S. Lewis who once said, “Don’t waste your time bothering with you. Love your neighbour. Act as if you do as soon as you do”. You’ll discover one of the great secrets when you are behaving as if you love someone who said you will presently come to love him.

So friendship is something that’s very important. A good friend is not there because of what they can get from you. They’re there because of what they mean to you. So if you have a good friend, close friend, thank God and say, “Well, I’m glad that God has brought you into my life”.

Well, God, it’s wonderful to know that someone cares. Some sometimes Lord, we don’t really understand this, but we thank you that people do care for us. And, Lord, our heavenly father has brought people to our lives who care and trust us. And we thank you for that provision. And I offer this prayer in the name of Jesus, I mean.