After writing Faithful Friends, I got to thinking about those who don’t feel like they have any friends…faithful or not. I know what that feels like. Up until recently, I felt like I didn’t have any friends. Oh, I had people who cared about me and who I cared for, too, but I didn’t have any “share your heart” kind of friends. I have had in the past, but not so much in recent years. I’m sure that’s mostly my fault. Regardless, though, I felt alone. So, I know what it’s like to not have anyone to help you out.

I was thinking about this as I drove to church. Wondering if, instead of inspiring hope, my post would discourage someone. I don’t want that. Another story came to mind. Another miracle. A different set of circumstances.

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. John 5:1-9a

Another sick man in need of healing, but a different set of circumstances. It was believed that an angel would periodically come and trouble the water in the pool of Bethesda, and that, when the water was stirred up, whoever was the first to get into the water would be healed. This man had been sick for thirty-eight years. Thirty-eight years spent in need of healing. He wanted to be healed. He laid by the pool, hoping to be healed. Time after time, though, the water was stirred and he was unable to get in. He told Jesus that he had no one to help him. Someone else always beat him to it. He had no one. No friends to carry him. How hopeless it must have felt to feel so close to your healing, only to see someone else get in the water before you. Hopeless, indeed, until Jesus came by. Jesus asked him a question. “Do you want to be healed?” Of course this man wanted to be healed! He had no one to lower him into the water. No one to help him, but that didn’t matter anymore. The Saviour came to him. He healed him.

It’s a good reminder. Friends are important. They make life easier. It’s a lot easier sometimes to have someone carry you to Jesus than to get to Him yourself. When you have no one to help you to Him during the hard times, it can feel very lonely. It’s hard to feel alone. It’s hard to feel like you don’t have friends.

Oh, but, Friend, let me tell you! There is a Friend. Just like He did for the man lying by the pool, He can come to you. He is a faithful friend. He loves you.

A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24

Don’t be discouraged. Even if you have been lying by the pool for a long time, there is hope! Jesus is asking us, “Do you want to be healed?” He died for our healing. He longs to heal us. We just have to accept his gift.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Psalm 103:1-5

He loves us, and He wants us to accept His gifts. He offers us forgiveness. He offers us healing. He offers us redemption. He offers us love and mercy, and He offers us satisfaction. We just have to ask and be ready to receive.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21

Just ask, Friend. He loves you. He wants to heal you. He is faithful, and He is able!