We are listening to an old hymn called Friendship With Jesus in this week's devotions! Here is verse 2:
A friend when other friendships cease
A friend when others fail,
A friend who gives me joy and peace
A friend who will prevail.
Being in a friendship with Jesus is bliss, as we saw in verse 1. One of the reasons for this is that there is no friend quite like Jesus!
Friends Who Come and Go, and the Friend Who Stays
Other friendships may cease. I'm sure you can think of friends who are no longer really friends. As the saying goes, there are people who come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. Sometimes a single interaction with someone can be profound - they came into your life for that one reason only. Others come into your life for a season, and then when that season ends, the friendship sort of fizzles out. That's okay!
But Jesus is one who comes to be a friend for life - and even beyond, as we shall see in later verses. Other friendships cease, but when Jesus comes into your heart, He desires to stay.
As the song says, Jesus is a friend when others fail. No friend can be perfect like Jesus! I wonder how many friendships in your life have failed, in some sense - or how many friends have failed you in one way or another. I can think of friends whom I have failed, in various ways - how glad I am that I am not their Saviour! Don't look to even your best and closest friend as a Saviour. Only Jesus can be that for you.
What Does It Mean That Jesus "Prevails" for You?
The song also says that Jesus is a friend who will prevail. What does that mean? The word usually means to gain victory or overcome - so perhaps the songwriter was saying that Jesus is a friend who comes into our lives and wins our victories for us, in a spiritual sense. That might be true.
But the word "prevail" can also be linked to prayer. Wesley Duewel wrote a book called Mighty Prevailing Prayer, in which he says this: "No form of Christian service is both so universally open to all and so high in Christ's priority for all Christians as prevailing prayer. It is Christ's desire, Christ's call, and Christ's command."
Jesus Prays for His Friends
So, perhaps the songwriter here is talking about how Jesus prays for His friends? Didn't He tell Peter, towards the end of the gospels, that He had prayed for him? Perhaps He is telling you today that He has prevailed in prayer for you too.
What a friend He is! I encourage you: get into a quiet place today, and spend some time alone enjoying the company of your great friend Jesus.
Nothing else will touch your soul like He can!
Jesus is the friend who stays when every other friendship fades, and He prays for you. Take one burden to Him today that you have been carrying to people instead.