Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please take the time to see/hear a video of an anonymous praise group singing the classic hymn, What A Friend We Have In Jesus, declaring the reality of Jesus’ deep and abiding friendship for all who come to Him in faith as disciples.
Highlight Passage: 1st Samuel 20: 42 [NKJV} …
42 Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since we have both sworn in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘May the Lord be between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants, forever.’” So he arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city.
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Highlight Context - NKJV: 1st Samuel 20: 32-42 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK … Jonathan and David bonded as friends …
Reference Passage #1: Ecclesiastes 4: 9-10 [NKJV] …
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up.
Reference Passage #2 … John 15: 9-17— GO TO THIS LINK … Especially note verses 13-15 as Jesus declares His friendship for all His disciples
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Jennifer Benson Schuldt, opens with a reflection from the Movie, Shane, which I remembered vividly since I’ve seen the movie several times. She told of the friendship the mysterious stranger, Shane, who was befriended by the western rancher, Joe Starrett. Finally, in a conflict involving his newly adopted “family,” Shane even risked his life for Joe, who had taken him in to his family even as a stranger. It was an image of the type of friendship we all need in others … but seldom find; and it is the type of friendship anyone can have in Jesus, the Christ … forever.
The relationship we read about in the highlight passage for the day, 1st Samuel 20: 32-42, between the young, anointed king-to-be, David, and the first-born son of King Saul, Jonathan, is one of the great Bible stories illustrating true friendship. Jonathan was slated to become King in the Jewish family tradition as Saul’s first-born. However, his friend, Jesus, was anointed by the prophet as the next king. And then we see Jonathan establishing a covenant bonding in friendship with David, even being willing to die for his friend by protecting him from Jonathan’s father.
And this deep friendship immediately raised, for the OBD author, the truths expressed in the two reference passages above - from Solomon in Ecclesiastes 4 and from Jesus, Himself, in the John 15 passage. If you’re reading along with me here, please take the time to meditate on those passages and the song linked today - the old hymn, What A Friend We Have In Jesus; and then let’s ask ourselves … #1 … Is Jesus my friend? AND … #2 … Do I have an earthly friendship which reflects the love Jesus has for me as His friend?
Certainly if we answer “NO” to #1, I would pray you make eternal friends with Jesus. But if you do know Jesus as your friend; and you declare in the negative for #2, today would be the time to begin to seek out and find a friend for whom you would die. It may take time; but the love extended to another in the process of building a true friendship will bring back love you may have never experienced without such a friend.
But above all, realize what a friend we have in Jesus!
My Prayer for Today … Lord, … Thank You for being my friend. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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