Daily Devotions
January 10th, 2011 by Pastor SolleyProverbs 18:24 A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: And there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
Tragedy proceeded the writing of the hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” as is the case with so many of the great hymns of faith. But I wonder this morning why that needs to be so? Jesus is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. From the moment we are saved and the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us we have a friend that will never leave or forsake us. We have a friend who gave His life so we might have life. We have a friend standing at the right hand of God waiting to hear us and help us. Why then does it take, or so often take tragedy in our lives for us to realize this? I really don’t have an answer but consider this. Jesus opened the doors of His house yesterday for His friends. I as a pastor do know some were sick, and some elderly and handicapped have trouble in the winter. But we have snow and cold, about 3 inches of fresh snow overnight, and our attendance was about half of what it normally is. I wonder why? Many who stayed home because of the bad weather have 4-wheel drives, they will be out and about today, some may have went shopping or out to eat yesterday, they will go to sporting events during this week, watch TV, meet with friends and family, just go on with life even though we are in winter season, even though we have snow. But with church we find the roads too bad to travel. More excuses about in summer as well. Why does it take tragedy for us to realize how close Jesus us? Because we tend to forget Him until that tragedy strikes. We don’t, or at least we don’t act like we need His friendship when teh skies are blue.