What is a friend?

Have you ever considered “friendship”?
So easy to pay lip service, “My friend”!
But who has reached that place in your life?
Not many, my friend, for few are the number!
Yet many may call you friend, few are their true number!

There is a line unseen, a spiritual wall, between true friends and the rest!
Friendship with Jesus makes us good candidates as friends!
But many times we be members of His body, like toes on the feet
Though we walk uprightly, the toes of the right foot
And the toes of the left foot never meet

If you are a finger of the hand you will find more fellowship
For the left hand and the right forever meet
The left ear is stationary and will never meet the right
Neither the eyes though they rejoice in the sun
The nose has blocked their meeting as friends

Now if you are a tooth you will have fellowship often
Everyone likes the “food and fellowship” meetings
Yet friendship is built on a more sure foundation
Than hamburgers and fries with idle chatter
Friends are made in the fires of affliction, in times of need!

When you really need a hand in life and the stranger appears
The angel sent from above, the six winged kind
Whose only desire is to lift you from your pit
Then leave you in the hands of the One who sent him
One ruled by the Spirit not by the flesh whose coming is God sent

Friendship need be tested in the hottest trials
The true ones handle the heat when the acquaintances hit the door
The honest one's care about your soul and not your face
Their gain is seeing your prosperity over their own
When they are not there you will never forget them

They know when you need space and you never have to ask them to leave
For they know the times, even early warnings in times of trouble
Speaking in proverbs for the wise to understand
Waiting for the right time, the living Word resting quietly within
Waiting for the hour that it can be received with understanding

A friend loves without conditions, drips mercy and truth like honey
Eyes red with new wine, teeth white with milk, weaned with the truth
Full of joy and ruled by God’s principles of grace and kindness
Like a law within that commands a godly response in times of need
To ignore the needy deep conviction brings

If you meet this friend, he will not at first be recognized
He knows friendship must first be tested, friends must be proved
Patience must have her perfect work, for friends are forever friends
And hearts must be plowed by trials of life for good seed to sprout
For to grow deep roots of righteousness, the soil must be prepared

For enduring friendships are not casually made, even in Christian circles
They are formed deep in the spirit with the bond of Christ love
They are lasting, enduring absences for long periods of time
They are sure and secure in their relationship
Because they are bound by Him who is a friend who said:

Greater love hath no man than this,
than to lay down his life for his friends.