“The Best Of Friends!”

“The Best Friend Ever!”(Job:16:18-17:1&11-16&19:23-27).
Times and seasons change. We may have the best of life with everything at our beck and call. But then evil days may fall on us, and the best of friends abandon us.
The best of friends with good intentions may still hurt us more in the name of comforting us.
It is at such moments when you learn the greatest lesson of life that you are on your own. You are you, and the best comfort you can receive at such moments comes from the convictions that are within you.
We may look to the stars for answers, but the stars cannot provide us with such answers that we are looking for.
The answer is in yourself! The answer is in the belief and the hope that you are convinced of. Hope undaunted! Hope that does not disappoint!
When Job was at the lowest point of his life and friends who stood by him taunted him and hurt him in the name of comfort, he realised that the best he could receive was to look inward and hold on to what he already had; and which he knew he had.
Job, however, was a typical example of a dim reflection in the mirror. He said, “Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God…”
Job saw hope beyond the grave – unlike the people of his time who considered death to be the end of everything.
Job spoke some of the best lines that have been cherished and used by Christians across generations, albeit that it is not a true reflection of Christian beliefs. Job said, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another…”
We may say these were prophetic words in reference to the Messiah whom Job knew nothing about.
Job was not thinking of the resurrection of the dead; he simply believed that life existed beyond the grave where the righteous would see God face to face.
God, however, sent his Son so that what was like a dim reflection in the mirror should be made clearer to us. The Son does whatever the Father does. “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it…” Whoever hears the words of the Son believes the Father who sent him, “has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life…” The presence of Christ is the dawn of a new era, “when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live…all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out – those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned…”(Jn.5:19-29).
My friend, this text comes to us on the eve of the Advent season when we prepare to receive the Son of God who comes as a baby. We are reminded that Christmas does not only commemorate the birth of Christ but that his second coming is as a judge.
How we prepare ourselves spiritually and actualize it physically determines our seats at the rendezvous with the Savior.
Sunday prayer: Holy Spirit, guide our steps on the path that welcomes the Messiah. Amen!
Have a blessed Sunday! Peace be with you!
Happy CWF Rally to the mothers and daughters of the PCC!
Rev Babila Fochang.
23/11/2025.