You Are Not Alone

​I’m going to admit first thing that when I found out we were writing about friendships this month, I first wondered how I could get out of it.  I honestly thought I had nothing to write.  Friends have been at the top of my prayer list for a while now.  It’s not that I don’t have friends.  I have my husband who is my best friend and I am very close to my parents and an Aunt.  My college roommates are close friends, and while they are like sisters to me, we are all terrible at keeping up with each other on a regular basis.  I know lots of people and connect with them a lot. But that one girl or group of girls that knows me inside and out at this season in life, I don’t have that.  Some of the reasons I’m missing those friendships is I haven’t truly made developing relationships a priority.  I put my family first always.  When I got married I moved to a new community and a new church and immediately gained two children.  I went from single to soccer mom and my schedule got super crazy.  Life then got very hard as we navigated some pretty intense teenage issues and I put up a wall.  I have realized years later that I didn’t want to let anyone get close because I didn’t want to be vulnerable and therefore friendships never developed. So here I was, not wanting to write about friendships, because my life does not abound with what the world says are friends.
But then last week I was listening to an interview on a Podcast.  I can’t remember which one or who the interview was with but I do remember the quote “Jesus is a friend that never leaves you.”  Wow!  During all of those years for praying for a friend I had one!  A friend who is never going to leave me and who is never going to give up on me!
The Lord your God will be the one who keeps on walking with you—he won’t leave you or abandon you-Deut. 31:6b
Jesus is my friend all the time.  He is the one I can turn to in the good times and bad.  He is the one who loves me unconditionally.  He is with me no matter where I turn. 
Jesus had many friends.  Lazarus was greatly loved by Jesus along with his two sisters.  Jesus loved his disciples and called them friends.  Jesus had friends that were good upstanding members of society and was friends with some pretty unsavory characters.  Jesus also had friends, that he loved, that he knew were going to betray him.  Judas was one of Jesus dearly loved disciples.  He loved Jesus but he loved money more and agreed to betray Jesus by turning him over to the Chief Priest for a sum of money.  Peter was another disciple that loved Jesus but denied knowing him three times in the course of one evening. Jesus continued to love them even though he knew what they were going to do!
When life gets tough and you feel like your friends are few, don’t forget you are never alone!  You have a friend whose name is Jesus and HE will be there no matter what!

Written By: Heather