God’s friend

November 14, 2007

By Randy Mantik

Frank Capra is one of my favorite movie directors. You may remember this genial man who was involved in the production of many classic films such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, You Can’t Take It With You, and Meet John Doe. I enjoyed his work for many years before I happened to see a rerun of his TV appearance on This is Your Life from the 1950s. In it, I finally saw him as the wonderful, loving man he was, doing many great things behind the scenes for those he worked with.

Capra revealed the modus operandi behind all of the fine pictures he made. He said he was always looking to make movies with a particular type of main character — someone who was down on his luck but who makes it in the end, despite the odds. Capra went on to describe this character as someone “of whom God alone was his friend.”

If you’ve ever watched the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life, you know exactly what Capra meant. Remember the inscription in the copy of Huck Finn that Clarence, the angel, gives to George Bailey in the movie? “No man is a failure who has friends.”

Most of the major characters of the Bible knew the value of real friends. But they also learned the important lesson of finding God as the Friend who would never fail or leave them, especially when all other friends may have forsaken them.

I have come to know someone over the past number of years who has been a real friend to me. He’s always willing to listen, always ready to take my side, always quick to offer encouragement. Through him I’ve learned more about friendship than I’ve ever known before. However, even as great a friend as he is, he is only dimly reflecting the perfect, unfailing friendship God offers to me and to each of us.

Abraham chose to walk with God and obey and love Him above everyone and everything else. “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness … and he was called God’s friend” (James 2:23, NIV). We too can have the inestimable privilege and joy of being a friend of God.

Looking at Abraham’s life, one can see again and again how God was so faithful. In all that Abraham went through, God was his unfailing friend. Even when Abraham failed, God hung in there with him. Yes, Abraham was called a friend of God but more importantly, God was a friend to Abraham.

Someone said, “A true friend is someone who walks in when everyone else walks out.” I recall a minister friend who was struggling with discouragement. He and his wife wanted to give up their ministry. He called a friend who lived many states away and told him of his hard times and the temptation to give up and leave.

His friend said, “Here’s the plan: You and your wife hop in your car and we will do the same. I will make reservations at a hotel in a city halfway between us and we will stay there with you for a few days of rest and relaxation.”

And that’s exactly what they did. The two couples spent the next few days together crying, laughing, and talking, forgetting about all that was going on at home. Then the minister and his wife went back to the same discouraging situation, but with hearts renewed and refreshed by the sweet fellowship of their friends. As it turned out, they ended up staying in that ministry for many more years. Oh, the priceless gift of friends who will drop everything and rush to your side!

That’s the kind of friend God is. It’s not a friendship based on our merit, but on the merits of Jesus Christ. God keeps reaching out to us. He wants us to completely rely on His love so we will no longer live to please man, but to please Him. We will learn that we have all things in Him and He is all we really need. Then we will live our lives as God’s friend, living to please Him.

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’ ” (Hebrews 13:5,6).

Randy Mantik is senior pastor of Crossroads Church of the Assemblies of God in Pembine, Wis.