Your Faithful Friend

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You're listening to the My Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1165. Today's Devo is called your faithful friend. Hey there. We're the Alessies, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida.

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And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional podcast.

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Happy Friday, everybody. This is Stephanie and we have reached the weekend. And I think we're almost a week and a half out from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We're like, right there. Maybe I have my time wrong, whatever, but we're so close. It's right there. I hope you got your Christmas shopping done.

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I hope that you have your plans settled, what you're going to do for the holidays. But let's just remember this is the best time of the year. Let's make it joyful, let's make it fun, and let's make it unforgettable. I'm just excited for this year. It's gonna be a lot of fun. And we're continuing in our reading plan. And today I'm gonna be reading from Isaiah 53, and it is a little long, so I'm just gonna take little bits and pieces from it. But I just wanna encourage you today that no matter what you're facing, Jesus is a friend. He knows you. He knows what you're going through. He's gone through it himself. You know, I'm a mom of two. I'm married for four years now and I'm 28 years old. I'm young. So if you go on my Instagram, you will see that I follow moms in their 20s and 30s, mothers to three, four children, married Christians. You see that I want to be surrounded with people just like me because they know what I'm going through. They know what a bad day means, they know what a stressful day means, they know what a good day means, they know what the victories are. And I like to be surrounded by people who understand that because it just makes me feel like I'm less alone in my season. And I'm sure it's the same thing for you. If you love cooking, I'm sure you follow a bunch of cooks. If you're a painter, I'm sure you follow a bunch of painters. If you're in older, in your 50s and 60s, you're following a lot of people in their 50s. And 60s because there's a part of us, and it's been in us since we were babies, that needs to be around like minded people so that we feel less alone.

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It's sharing our experiences with others. God placed that in us. He knows that we like to be surrounded by others. He knows that man cannot be alone. So what did God do in his wisdom?

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He sent His Son down who went through the same experience as us so that we can have a friend in Jesus. Isaiah 53 says, he was despised and abandoned by men.

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He was a man of great pain. He was familiar with sickness. He was despised and we had no regard for Him. It was our sicknesses that Jesus himself bore. It was our pains that Jesus carried. It even says down in verse five that he was struck down by God. He was humiliated. He was pierced for our offenses, he was crushed for our wrongdoings. He was oppressed and afflicted. Jesus has gone through everything we could have gone through. And he did it to forgive our sins. He did it to defeat death. He did it to be the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords. But also he did it so that we would not be alone. That our Savior knows exactly what we're going through. He knows what it's like to be sick. He knows what it's like to be humiliated.

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He knows what it's like to be abandoned. So now we get to be encouraged, knowing that our Savior knows exactly what it feels like to be in our season. He knows what it feels like to be in a stressful season even. He wasn't a mother, but he knows what it's like to have an overwhelming schedule. He knows what it feels like to be pressured, to be overwhelmed, to maybe feel alone or abandoned. Jesus, your Savior knows what that feels like. So in this holiday season, in this Christmas season, even if you're going through the hardest of times, your Savior knows exactly what it is you're feeling. He knows exactly what you're going through.

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And he's going to help you. And he's going to help you by healing you, by guiding you, by providing for you.

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But the best thing about Jesus is he's going to help you by simply being your friend who knows what you're going through.

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He stands by your side every step of the way. Whether you're young and you're in high school and you're needing friends, or whether you're older and you're going through transition seasons and you need a friend. Jesus is that friend to you. Embrace him today. Embrace your friend. Embrace Jesus Christ.

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And remember that when you draw near to him, he will draw near to you. So let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for being our friend. We thank you for being the friend that brings joy into our life, that brings provision into our life, that brings wisdom into our life.

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We can't live without you, Jesus. And we thank you that you draw near to us when we draw near to you.

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So Father, we're stepping towards you, we are calling out to you. We are embracing you as our friend in this Christmas season. So embrace us, call back out to us and just draw near to us as we walk through the holidays, as we walk into this new year, as we go into 2025.

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God, we embrace you and we hold onto you and we thank you for being our friend. And in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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So there you have it. Your 5 minute daily dose of heaven.

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Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend, leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow. We pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.