"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." (John 15:12-15 NIV)
I came across a captivating new-to-me verse while I was doing my Bible study homework: "And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God" (1 Samuel 23:16).
"Helped him find strength in God."
Friends can help each other "find" lots of things. Some of my favorite dresses, for instance, were "found" for me by friends when we were shopping together. "Here," they told me, "this looks like you and it's on clearance." (Thanks, friends.)
But to be dressed in the strength of God is to be clothed in a true treasure, and to have found a friend who can help us find this strength is to have found yet another treasure.
The relationship between Jonathan, son of the man who was rejected by God as king of Israel, and David, the man who was anointed by God as the future king of Israel, is often viewed as a model for true friendship. And in just a few words in 1 Samuel 23:16, we see what faithful friends can and should do for each other.
Jonathan did not take over; he "helped" David.
Jonathan did not help David find wealth or ease or some earthly prize; he helped him find strength.
Jonathan did not help David find his own strength or Jonathan's strength; he helped Him find God's strength.
In this verse, I see blanks to be filled in: "so ______________ went to ____________ and helped him or her find strength in God."
Sometimes, my name goes in the first blank. Sometimes, God asks me to be the friend who helps someone find strength in God.
Many other times, my name has been in that second spot. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to friends who have helped me find strength in God.
God is the Giver of both friends and of strength, and what divine wisdom it is that He sometimes uses one to help us find the other.
In this verse, I see blanks to be filled in: "so ______________ went to ____________ and helped him or her find strength in God."
Sometimes, my name goes in the first blank. Sometimes, God asks me to be the friend who helps someone find strength in God.
Many other times, my name has been in that second spot. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to friends who have helped me find strength in God.
God is the Giver of both friends and of strength, and what divine wisdom it is that He sometimes uses one to help us find the other.
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I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to tell me what you really think. Years ago, I explained to my then-two-year-old that my appointment with a counselor was "sort of like going to a doctor who will help me be a better mommy." Without blinking, she replied, "You'd better go every day." All of which is just to say I've spent some time in the school of brutal honesty!