Did you ever have that friend growing up that was EVERYTHING to you? You did everything together, you talked about everything and you went everywhere together? I had a best friend like that growing up. Her name was Mercedes. We were inseparable during elementary and middle school and most of high school.
She lived around the corner from me. I can’t remember the exact moment that we became friends, but she was everything to me growing up.
For years I still had the boxes of notes we wrote back and forth to each other. Talking about this guy and that guy. Who did we like? Who did we not like? Who did we want to be when we grew up? What kind of guy did we want to marry and what would he look like.
I wanted to be a professional ballerina or a missionary. She wanted to be in politics. She was MUCH smarter than me, but never held that against me. I wanted to marry a man from the south (so I could mostly just listen to him talk). I don’t think she had any interest in marriage, but she wanted to save the world. She stood up for women’s rights and injustices. I just wanted to tell people about Jesus.
We would stay up all night dreaming of our futures, discussing our current relationships and situations. Together we would solve each other's problems. Finish each other's sentences. Wear each other’s clothes. Fix each other’s hair. Fight each other’s battles.
This is the kind of relationship we had, because we spent time together. We talked to each other. Listened to each other. We read each other’s words. We sat with each other, in silence, sadness and in joy. We sought each other out and made time for each other.
There was an intimacy that Mercedes and I shared that I didn’t have with anyone else. No one knew me like she did.
In the book of James, chapter 5:13-14, the author is telling us how we as Christians can have this kind of intimacy with Christ. Even greater intimacy than what Mercedes and I shared.
“If one of you is having troubles, he should pray. If one of you is happy, he should sing praises. If one of you is sick, he should call the church elders. The elders should pour oil on him in the name of the Lord and pray for him.”
James wants us to be continually praying for everything. Having a bad day? Pray. Having a great day? Pray. Feeling sick? Pray. Been sinning? Pray. Living a godly life? Keep praying.
Look back at how I described my friendship with Mercedes. Think of the amount of time it took to know each other well enough to finish sentences. Imagine if you will, that instead of me talking about Mercedes, I was talking about my friend Jesus?
He is my everything. He goes everywhere with me. I share everything with him. I read all of his letters to me. I stay up all night telling him my hopes and dreams. My fears. The desires of my heart.
He tells me how much he loves me. How he created me to tell others about him. How his heart hurts when my heart hurts. How he defends me. Gave his life for me. I am his everything. When he calls out to me, I recognize his voice because we’ve talked so many times before and when I pray to him, he hears me because he also knows my voice. He knows my heart.
In telling you about my friend Jesus, I keep singing this old hymn over and over in my head:
What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer
Oh, what peace we often forfeit
Oh, what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged
Take it to the Lord in prayer
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness
Take it to the Lord in prayer
I think Alan was talking about James chapter 5 when he sang this song.
What are you thoughts?
Mary Swafford is the founder of Shaken & Stirred, Meals that Matter, Coffee Talk, and a Co-Owner of Boulder Coffee in downtown Sand Springs. She is a wife, a mother of 3 beautiful children, but most importantly a daughter of the most high God. You are likely to find her chugging or serving coffee, sitting in a tattooist’s chair, or making friends out of strangers.