Do you need a friend?

I was contemplating this evening how many real friends I have, not how many aquaintances I have. There are mums at school who seem to have lots of friends and stand chatting in groups, some of them have very close friendships. I, more often than not, stand on my own. The Bible says, "A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." Proverbs 18v27.

Later on I read a short peice by JC Ryle:

... If there is one who wants a friend, let that one behold at the right hand of God an unfailing friend, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let that one repose his aching head and weary heart upon the bosom of that unfailing friend, Jesus Christ the Lord. There is one living at God’s right hand of matchless tenderness. There is one who never dies. There is one who never fails, never disappoints, never forsakes, never changes His mind, never breaks off friendship.

That One, the Lord Jesus Christ, I commend to all who need a friend. No one in this fallen world, a world which we find more and more barren every year we live, no one ever need be friendless while the Lord Jesus Christ lives to intercede at the right hand of God.

I'll stick with that friend - the freind of sinners!