Finding a Faithful Friend

Not all friends are created equal. First of all, when I refer to friends in this post, I am not talking about “Facebook friends” or the like but real friends. My conviction is that every one of us will benefit from having a friend who is faithful. This is a person whom we can place confidence in during a critical time in our life. On the other hand, the Bible says that, “Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint” (Proverbs 25:19). Ouch, that sounds painful.

This is not to say that we should have no place in our life for an unfaithful friend. Such a person may have other qualities that appeal to us, and we may receive great benefit from the person’s friendship.  Also, let us not make the mistake of assuming that faithfulness is incidental to true friendship. It’s no guarantee that because someone is a genuine friend that he or she is faithful. Some people are not even faithful in handling their own affairs. Shame on us if we know a friend to be unfaithful and we still put our confidence in him in our time of trouble.

So is there anyone in your life—outside of family members-- whom you can put your confidence in during a troublesome time in your life?

I find the verse we are discussing to be very practical. You see, just because you are a Christian does not mean you don’t need the help of others. It may sound good to say that we trust in God and we don’t need anybody else, but to me that’s empty religious talk. Yes, we should pray for God’s help whenever we are faced with trials in our life, but most of the time He answers those prayers through other people.

And since we are on the subject of faithful friends, we need to examine ourselves in this regard. The question is, what kind of friend are we? Can those who call us their friend count on us when it seriously matters? Hopefully, the answer is yes.  Remember that Jesus said, “All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them” (Matthew 7:12). So if we want our friends to be trustworthy when they need us, we should be the same way toward them.

Copyright © 2013 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Our Faith in the Eyes of God

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, He talked about the importance of having faith in God and what we could accomplish through such faith. But through studying the Scriptures, I am convinced that our concept of faith and God’s concept of faith are often worlds apart.

Let’s start with the Old Testament. While the children of Israel were in the wilderness for 40 years, God miraculously took care of them; He fed them daily with manna, their clothes never grew old (see Deuteronomy 8:3-4), and He was among them as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. In effect, they lived in the presence of God. But when He gave them the Promised Land, as He had promised, they were afraid to take the land that God had given them.

And here is what the Bible reveals in the New Testament about that Old Testament experience: “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:19).

My thinking is that since these people were living in the presence of God, and experiencing His miraculous provisions every day, it should not have been a challenge for them to believe that God could give them the Promised Land. So if they had that kind of access to God and they still doubted Him, what about us who do not live amidst these daily manifestations of God’s presence?

Now let’s look at the New Testament. In one instance, a man brought his son to the disciples to cast the demon out of the young man, but the disciples could not do it. I might add that prior to this, Jesus had given the disciples power to do that very thing—cast out demons (see Matthew 10:1).

When they asked Jesus why they could not cast out the demon, Jesus said, “Because of your unbelief” (Matthew 17: 20). So if these disciples had power to cast out demons and saw all the miracles Jesus did and still lacked faith to get the job done, what about us who have not been so privileged to live with Jesus His entire public ministry?

Based on the examples above, our claims of faith in God must be more than a tired cliché. Even the disciples struggled in the area of their faith at times. We all loosely talk about our having faith. But in the eyes of God, I am certain that oftentimes when we claim to be exercising faith in Him, what He sees is plain old unbelief. Genuine faith in God comes about only through walking with Him daily and making Him first in our lives.

God wants to answer our prayers and to do awesome things through us for His glory, but to experience this kind of Christian life we must have faith and doubt not.

Copyright © 2013 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

My Thoughts on Psalm 1

Today, I told my son to read Psalm 1 and then come to me so we could discuss it. My goal was to help him develop the habit of reading the Bible and striving to understand what he reads. As we talked about the psalm, interesting thoughts kept coming to my mind. So I thought I would write a post on one of the main thoughts that kind of stood out as we were discussing Psalm 1.

The point I want to share is the statement found at the end of verse 3 that reads thusly: “And whatsoever he does shall prosper.”  Now think about the word whatsoever.  In effect, this biblical statement is saying that no matter what the person does, it shall prosper. If at this point you are saying that sounds too good to be true or there must be more to this story, you are absolutely right.

So we have to ask ourselves the question, what is the proper context of this biblical statement or promise from God? The answer is that this promise is based on our being obedient to the things that precede it. In other words, this promise only applies to those who don’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly; who shun the ways of sinners and the scorners, and who delight in and meditate on the Word of God daily (see verses 1 and 2).

The point is that when a person’s life becomes characterized by the things mentioned in the previous paragraph, his passion will be for things that please the Lord, as opposed to worldly gain or concerns. And these are the ones to whom the promise is directed that “whatsoever he does shall prosper.”

Finally, the main focus of Psalm 1 is not financial prosperity. I feel I needed to say that because many people in the church today have become so preoccupied with material wealth. The teachings of Psalm 1 can be applied to any area of our life. For example, this psalm can apply to a college student who wants to be successful in his academic endeavors, to a parent who wants to do a bang up job in parenting, to the church member who wants to do a great job serving the Lord and His people, etc.

So whatever your goals are in life, make sure that Psalm 1 is a vital part of your plan.

Copyright © 2013 by Frank King. All rights reserved.