[248 words]
Life is filled with choices. We chose what we do for a living, what we eat, where we live, etc. One of the most challenging is the choice of friends. Solomon the wise prophet told us: “The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray” (Proverbs 12:26).
Too bad Solomon didn’t listen to his own advice. 1 Kings 11:3 tells us as Solomon grew older, he had 1000 wives and slave wives. That verse concludes with this statement: “And his wives turned away his heart.”
One of the great examples of a loyal friend is seen in the friendship of Elijah and Elisha. When Elijah knew that the Lord was about to take him to heaven, three times he asked Elisha to stay behind. But Elisha wouldn’t hear of it. He was not about to let his friend leave this world alone. He was loyal to the end (2 Kings 2).
Our greatest friend is Jesus. How many of our friends today would be willing to die that we might live? Yet this is what Jesus did for you!
As the song reminds us:
There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus/No, not one! no, not one!
None else could heal all our soul’s diseases/No, not one! no, not one!
Jesus knows all about our struggles,/He will guide till the day is done;
There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus/No, not one! no, not one!
Larry Fitzgerald
Woodlawn church of Christ
Abilene, TX