Sooner or later it’s bound to happen that a friend will let you down or frustrate you in some way. Maybe it’s the third time this month that you rearranged your schedule to get together and for the third time the friend canceled at the last minute. Do you ever think, “Who needs them? I can get along just fine on my own. In fact, I’ll probably be happier.” Our self-absorbed society encourages that mindset by telling us that above all, we need to be concerned about “me” and if someone else interferes with what “I” want or need, we should forget them.
Do you ever think that way about God, that He has let you down because He didn’t give you what you prayed for or He brought sickness or some other hardship into your life? Some decide that they are better off going it alone. In place of faith in God they substitute faith in self-reliance, and celebrate their own accomplishments and strength.
But sooner or later, self-sufficiency is going to let a person down. It’s going to fail. At some point the most skillful survivalist living off the grid in some remote wilderness will face a crisis he cannot overcome without help. The person who spends a lifetime trying to prove that he doesn’t need God for anything will sooner or later realize that there is that one enormous problem of sin and death he cannot possibly resolve.
God never intended that people should live independent of one another and God. His will from the beginning was that all people would live in perfect harmony with Him and one another. Sin ruined that plan and we see the continued repercussions all around us and in our own lives.
But there is an answer. It is not writing off God and others, but rather trusting what Jesus, the Friend of sinners, did for all people. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb. 2:14-15).
Jesus is the perfect Friend who paid the debt we all owed. He is the Friend who will never let you down. He won our forgiveness so that we now we can befriend others and instead of becoming frustrated with them, may forgive them as freely as God in Christ has forgiven us.
With tomorrow’s Friendship Sunday we have the opportunity to hear again of how Jesus in love calls us His friends and how we reflect His love in befriending others. Why not invite a neighbor, relative, co-worker, etc. to join us?
In Jesus’ name,
Pastor
There is only one service tomorrow—9:30 a.m. The VBS children are asked to be at church by 9:00 to practice their song.
After the service the church picnic gets underway at ProHealthCare Park,2950 S. Sunnyslope, New Berlin. Everyone is welcome!
