What a Friend We Have!
Week Forty-Six
November 9, 2025
… but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
— Proverbs 18:24 (ESV)
What a Friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer! ¹
Joseph Schriven penned these words of comfort in 1855 from his home in Canada to his mother who was living in Ireland, and they have become for many a Christian an anthem to the friendship and nearness of God. But is it odd to think of the sustainer of all things as a friend? Does the ruler of the universe have time to share our sorrows? Would the One sitting in heaven find it in his heart to be nearer to us than a brother? Well, if you believe what the bible has to say, then the answer to all of these questions is an absolute, “Yes!” He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Jesus is a friend in word and action, and, I will add, invitation. He loves, and continues to love us, without expectation of return from us. He is a friend without need and without deficit, so friendship with him stands only to benefit and not drain us. We can trust him completely, unequivocally. He is not prone to flattery, but is straight with us, telling it like it is — in perfect love. His love is an honest love. Even now, he stands at the door of your heart, knocking, waiting to come and visit with you, his friend.
We were not chosen as friends haphazardly; God chose us in his wisdom because of his great love for us. His heart has been set on us before time began. We were in the mind of God, in his thoughts, even before we were born. And when our hidden form became known to our parents at our birth, was not the providence of God smiling and shining down upon us, a life to be lived for him? And then when that glorious day came, the day of our second birth when we said, “Yes”, to the invitation of Jesus, the grin of God must have sparked an eruption of joy in heaven to make the skies shake. “O happy day!” when Jesus became my friend.
How could we ever doubt, after all of this, and after looking upon his divine plan played out in our lives? How could we ever think that there would be even a vapor of a thought in the mind of God to unfriend us? Impossible. Unthinkable. Ridiculous. He did not spare his own Son. He gave it all to justify us. Christ died and rose for us — for you, for me. He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
Through your trials, your wanderings, the many dangers you may face, and in your constant toiling, he remains at your side sure, strong, and faithful. The ugly in your life does not drive him away. He remains at your side; “... those are not friends who speed themselves away when ill times come.” ² Jesus has never and will never speed himself away when we find ourselves less than a worthy friend, for he is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Monday
November 10, 2025
No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
— John 15:15 (NASB)
Friends share hearts, and as our friend, Jesus invites us into the greatest privilege known to man: to know God as our Father. He confides in those who care to hear his heart, and makes known to us what matters to him, what matters to the Father. He teaches us, not so that we can know the pleasures of epiphany or enjoy the dizzying heights of acquired information; he teaches us that we might have an abundant faith, a faith that expresses itself through love. He shares his heart that we might bear his heart.
What are some matters of the heart that Jesus shared with his disciples? What truths has he shared with you personally?
What does it mean to be someone’s confidant? Have you known Jesus as this close friend? Would you consider yourself one of his confidants?
Tuesday
November 11, 2025
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
— Proverbs 17:17 (ESV)
Jesus desires to be your constant companion, a friend through every season, with you at all times, loving you. He is the model elder brother walking alongside you, arm around your shoulder, head bowed, leaning in with a listening ear. He walks with you through adversity, giving elder-brother advice. In your lostness he comes after you and, in your weakness, he does not despise you. He will not leave you alone in your struggle to climb out of the pigsties of your failures or rebellion. No, he comes to you in your sorrow and regret and loves you as a true friend loves. Call out to him, your friend and your brother, in your joy and in your sorrow; he is just a name away.
What are some of the responsibilities a true friend carries? How does love express itself through friendship?
How should the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son have responded to his younger brother’s wandering? What might “loving at all times” look like?
Wednesday
November 12, 2025
The wounds of a friend are faithful, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
— Proverbs 27:6 (BSB)
“True friends put enough trust in you to tell you openly of your faults.” ³ Jesus shows himself a true friend to us in his correction of us, speaking hard truths in perfect love. Do not despise the discipline of the Lord! He does not afflict because it brings pleasure to his heart; his discipline comes to us with his eye upon us for our good, not our temporary comfort, for our eternal well-being, not our short-lived satisfaction. And he’ll use all the tools at his disposal, so don’t despise the instruments of his love whether they be spouse or pastor, friend or foe, a book or the Book. He brings it all for your good as a good friend should.
How can a wound be thought of as “faithful”? What or who are some of the instruments of correction that the Lord has used in your life?
Contrast flattery with correction. Which of these two are you more comfortable receiving? Do you find it easier to receive correction from someone you have relationship with more than a stranger? Why?
Thursday
November 13, 2025
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
— Romans 12:15 (ESV)
Jesus, your true and noble friend, is deeply acquainted with your deepest pain as well as your greatest joys. Your suffering moves him, causing indignance to rise up within him. He wept with Mary at the loss of her brother, and the same compassion he had for Mary has not lessened for you. God does not rejoice over the wrongs and injustices that affect our lives; no, he rejoices when that which is true and good comes to pass in our lives. He rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁴ He is a friend that walks with us through the rain and in the sunshine. He is an all-weather friend. He is the one who rejoices over you with songs of joy. This friend delights in you.
How does it feel to know that Jesus shares in your lowest lows and highest highs? What does it look like for us to share in the matters that concern and move his heart?
What does it look like to care about the well-being of someone else? Is there someone you know of that could use a friend to rejoice or weep with them?
Friday
November 14, 2025
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
— Hebrews 13:8 (NIV)
Jesus is a friend that remains, even to your old age and graying hair. ⁵ In your failing and faltering, in your wandering and sinning, through loss and in pain, this “friend of sinners” sustains and carries you to the very end. Your friendship with Jesus was not born out of fickleness, but out of strong desire, by the will of God. He chose you. Over the years I’ve seen friendships come and friendships go, but there is one friend, (aside from my wife), that I still talk to every day. He walks beside me, a friend that sticks closer than a brother. He is just a name away — Jesus.
Does the fact that Jesus is consistent in his friendship with us mean that he is void of emotion? How do you think Jesus feels about your friendship with him?
What effect does thinking about the fact that Jesus has been with you every step of the way in every season of your life have on you? How can you, as a friend, respond to him given his faithful friendship?