Biblical friendship means loving your friends sacrificially, as Jesus loves you. Look for ways to love your friends well today by first putting Jesus at the center of it all.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and it’s Best Friends Day!
You may not know that, but you know it now, so, you’ve got good cause to honor your best friend today with, I don’t know, an email, phone call, text, whatever, just let them know how much they mean to you and the impact they’ve had on your life. When I think of great friends in my life, I recall my 10th grade biology lab partner, Diana. When Mrs. Klingaman put us together in sophomore biology class, she had no idea what she was starting. I was immediately drawn to Diana – she was funny, had a bright intellect, and brought her Bible to class. Hmm. ’Cause, you see, I was a new believer at the time and so, it really impressed me that Diana kept her big Bible on the top of her desk, in full view. I mean, here was a girl who took her faith in Christ seriously. And I admired that.
Diana and I remained close all throughout high school and when I broke my neck just a few weeks after graduation, she was the one who decided to inasmuch take a gap year and not head off to college in the fall. But instead, she used that time to sign up as a candy striper in the hospital where I was recuperating. She not only fed me meals and helped with my bath and washed my hair, she pushed me to and from physical therapy, and she befriended all the other young people with serious injuries who were in the hospital, recovering. She was a mirror image of Proverbs 18:24; she was the friend who stuck closer than a brother (or, sister, as it were). And I’ve never, ever forgotten her kindness. She was my best friend.
Today is Best Friends Day, and when we consider how to be a good friend, we have no greater example than Jesus. As it says in John 15, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” It’s certainly what Diana did for me. Friends like her think nothing of taking friendship to the sacrificial level, just as Jesus proved his love by sacrificing himself on the cross. And that should teach us something about genuine friendship. Christ’s example should motivate us to love others sacrificially. But being that kind of friend is not easy. It takes work. Pastor and biblical counselor Garrett Higbee writes in his booklet “Helping a Hurting Friend” that, “finding good friends is less about finding the ideal person to connect with and more about being ready to be that person to someone else. To find a good friend, you first need to be a good friend.”
Higbee goes on to say that kind of love comes from an overflow of your relationship with Christ. You know, my friend Diana didn’t mind that being friends with me cost her dearly, it cost her a semester in college. It’s because she knew how to abide in Christ – obey him, love him, spend time with him. And her Bible on her desk proved that she took her friendship with Christ seriously – it also meant she took it seriously with me. She didn’t walk away when I was in desperate need; she met those needs. Can you love others sacrificially? Well, Garrett Higbee has some good suggestions on how to assess that, like, that do you point your friends to Christ and his Word when trouble strikes? Do you pray with and for your friends regularly? Do you ask for forgiveness? Hey, Garrett Higbee has more to say on this, so, this being Best Friends Day, let me send you his booklet. Go to my radio page at joniradio.org and request the booklet “Helping a Hurting Friend.” It’s my friendship gift to you on this, Best Friends Day. Again, ask for your gift at joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends