"The Friend of Our Hearts"

"There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24).

    God is many things to His trusting children in Christ.  He is the Creator and Sustainer of our being, our Savior and Redeemer, our Father, our Lord and Master, and the One in whom we "live and move and have our being," to name just a few of His roles and offices in our lives (Acts 17:28).

     He is also our friend, the great Friend of our hearts.  He knows us, and enables us to know Him.  We matter to Him, He cares for us, and as A.W. Tozer once said, "God is emotionally involved in our lives."  Of such involvement, our Lord promises to finish the work of grace He began in us through Christ, a work we can be sure is ongoing in this moment, whether we perceive it or not (Philippians 1:6).  That which blesses us blesses Him, and our griefs are His griefs.  Most importantly, all originates in the simple, but eternally and infinitely wondrous reality that "I have loved thee with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3). 

    No heart is friendless wherein dwells the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We could be carried away unto and left alone in the distant reaches of a vast universe where no other human face could be seen and no voice heard.  In such an hour, our Lord would meet us with special graces of presence and fellowship that would fill our hearts, confirming more than ever we've known, "In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11). This is who He is, the Friend of our hearts, and He is so in this present moment wherever we may find ourselves, and whatever may be our lot or circumstance. 

     This we must believe, first, because it is true, and then because our Heavenly Father desires us to know and rejoice in the wonder of His affection, devotion, involvement, caring and love.  Much was sacrificed to make such presence and fellowship possible.  May we remember and devote ourselves anew and afresh to the Friend of our hearts, determining to be the friend of His heart.

"I have called you friends."

(John 15:15)