What A Friend We Have In Jesus
Laura Krecmer

The definition of a best friend according to the dictionary, per the internet, says it is, “a person who you value above other friends in your life, someone you have fun with, someone you trust and someone in whom you confide. The first person you call when you get good news or want to go out for a bite to eat is an example of your best friend”. And while we may have many friends in life, best friends are few and far between.

The King James version of the bible as Jesus is speaking in Matthew 22:37, tells us to “Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”. I am confident that the name Jesus could and should very well be the i.e. of that internet or elsewhere definition of a best friend! In fact, the Lord also explains to us in John 15: 14-15, “ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you”. It is within these verses that assures us the Lord will also confide in us! And how lovely are the feet of those that deliver His word (Romans 10:15) or testify for that matter to first-hand accounts of personal encounters with the Lord and Savior of this present world which is my only but express and full intent as you read further.

I myself have always testified that I do not serve the Lord because of what I have been taught because If I did then I would be living for God under someone else’s experience. I love the preached word of God. It is the very words from God when the speaker is sensitive unto the Spirit and surrenders to the unction of the Holy Ghost. The word of God is sweet like honey. Spiritual food for the soul and a complete must in spiritual life if you will. However, there is no experience in this world like the presence of the Almighty God that surrounds and not only speaks to the soul but touches it in all points and will, in other avenues, prove He is that very source. The spirit of God is the express definition of a gentleman. God will love you in ways that the flesh cannot experience in the deepest of it’s intimacies. I am your witness and as I have said, you must experience it for yourself in order to be persuaded to the fullest extent.

When the Lord called me, He did not put fear into me for that would not be love at all, as that is common knowledge indeed. Instead, the Lord surrounded me with a presence as if someone was gently touching me but not physically. It was a strange experience and a drawing that was obvious it was coming from the Lord and I could not refuse Him though I resisted initially. I tried adamantly but to no avail. He made His presence known, day after day for at least a month or maybe two until I longed for Him and His touch. The day I surrendered, the Holy Ghost moved upon me physically and I danced. I danced not out of joy within myself because I was grateful or saved or any of those experiences that we dance for on occasion for the Lord. I was not within my own self or mind. He introduced me to a dance that He was solely in control of from start to finish. I was not aware of where I was any longer. I lost sight of all aspects of life. I was somewhere in the Spirit and I did not want to come back. I would find myself begging God not to leave as I also found myself standing more and more in the flesh while the Spirit slowly slipped away. But as I felt my Spiritual love releasing me, I simultaneously felt the assurance that He would return on another occasion. And He did. His touch left me whole each time He visited me and all my desires became my time with Him. The only love that I can attest that is breathtaking without utter exaggeration is the presence of the Lord, my King.  Nothing does or ever can compare to the love of the one who created love.

All of a sudden, the Lord seems much more than a friend, now doesn’t He? How can the Lord ever be compared to a lowly fleshly friendship although He says He is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24)? He is many things in the bible as you can search the scriptures for yourself. The Lord revealed to me that taking the time in prayer is the way to His heart. He longs for that time with each of us individually. We can pray for one another, and we should, but the Lord waits and listens for us to be intimate with Him and it begins with our heart and the things we possess inside of it. The only way to divulge those things unto the Lord from a personal stance on our side of any form of friendship is to speak it from our mouth. How else do we become friends with anyone except we trust them with what we possess inside ourselves? Our trust must become much deeper still in order to acquire best friend statuses with a person. How much more do we need to divulge unto the Lord? There is no set time for prayer. Not when or even how long. The Lord measures our love for Him in how much we expose ourselves in the prayer closet. It is there that relationship is built and love flourishes. After my initial encounter with the Lord I longed for Him and so a wonderful relationship evolved when I pursued Him in return. I have faltered but he knew my faults beforehand and He helped me and continues to do so. After all, isn’t that what we do for our best friends?

I have heard some people say as they elaborate on a relationship with the Lord, how that they don’t want Christians pushing their religion upon them. What a person doesn’t realize is, is that the Lord says in the previous scriptures I shared that we are no longer servants but friends when we do what He commands us to do. He commands many things I suppose but the most profound among them all is to become witnesses unto men. God is a jealous God and He demands us to put Him first and love only Him as our Lord and Savior, but He wants that love to be shed abroad also that no man would die lost and his soul be lost. Thus, I share one of my poems that I wrote from my heart to my love and best friend of all friends, Jesus Christ. I pray it ministers to your very heart and soul as it did mine as I wrote it after spending time with God and with the help of God’s Holy Ghost that resides within me.

My Personal Prayer

I lay me down at the feet of God
And I pour out the hunger within
I lift up my eyes to the one crucified
And pray for His Spirit to descend
God give me a life that is filled with you
Help me to win souls without end
Help me to reach the souls who hold no hope
That a new life in you might begin
Touch us Lord with your mercy and grace
Help us all to find our way in
It’s not about us I realize
It’s about you and removal of sins
I’m striving Lord as I look up to you
For there’s no other way to come in
It doesn’t matter where I go or wherever I look
I can’t find a more faithful friend
Put your words on my lips
And your love in my heart
And lead me to someone each day
Give me the power to cause mountains to move
And devils to stay out of my way
Lord I don’t want to be like I’ve always been
And yet I don’t desire to be someone great
But there are many I know who desperately need you
I just want to reach them before it’s too late
I’ve failed you so many times in my measly life
I can’t begin to recount every case
But the thing that will help me continue my run
Is the power to recruit to this race
My eyes are on you God, my eyes are on you
And if there were no mansion or crown to win
Just to bring many with me to be by your side
Is all I seek when I enter in.

Laura Krecmer, with her husband Kevin, are dedicated workers in the Bus Ministry and other areas. They have a desire to see kids reached, shown love, and ultimately find a relationship with God.