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.







