We all need God. We need God to be our friend. And he is our friend, because of Jesus’ blood shed on the cross, reconciling us to him.
But we all need earthly friends, too. We need a person we can trust, confide in, and be confident that we have their love and their support — no matter what.
That’s what Jonathan was to David. And David to Jonathan.
A friend.
Do you have one or two of these? If not, pray and work hard until you find one. Most of all, don’t fool yourself into thinking you really don’t need a friend.
You do.
And if you’re struggling with how to get started, do what David and Jonathan did. Don’t look for someone who might be willing to be a friend to you.
Instead, look for someone you would be willing to be a friend to.
“Jonathan said to David, ‘Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.’ Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.” (1 Samuel 20:42, NIV).
Our Bible reading for today is 1 Samuel 19:1 – 20:42, John 17:6-26 and Psalm 68:7-14.
Lord, help me be a friend to someone who needs a friend. And help me to love this friend the way you first loved and befriended me — with pure grace!
Header image based on "Four Friends" by cowboytrix, CC By 2.0
pastorjeffgunn 
Our Bible reading for today is 1 Samuel 19:1 – 20:42, John 17:6-26 and Psalm 68:7-14.
Amen!
“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. (John 17:6-19 NIV)
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (John 17:20-26 NIV)
~Paul Montenieri
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