DAY 14 THE TRUE FRIEND

John 15:13-15

Let’s talk about hymns. What is your favorite hymn? May be the question should be what are your favorite hymns?

Some of our dearly beloved hymns have great stories behind them. Some of these hymns were not planned – some began as poems, some were just thoughts jotted down – but later they morphed into hymns. Some of the hymn writers were famous and some became famous after they wrote the hymns.

Then there was Joseph Scriven. Scriven was born in Dublin, Ireland in either 1819 or 1820. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin. When he was 25 he migrated to Canada and died in 1886.

Scriven’s life was full of tragedy. He wanted to join the Royal Marines but could not because of poor health. He fell in love and got engaged to be married but his fiancée drowned the night before the wedding. Then he went to Canada. He fell in love with another woman but she contracted pneumonia and died suddenly before the wedding.  Then he got news that his mother was sick but he did not have any money to visit her in Ireland. So he did something to comfort her. Scriven wrote poems so he sent a poem to comfort his mother- the only thing he could afford to do. He titled the poem ‘Pray without Ceasing’. He did not think much about the poem.

Thirty years later as Scriven lay on his death bed, a friend visited him and saw the manuscripts of Scriven’s poems. The friend was really impressed by ‘Pray without Ceasing’ and got the poem published. Later a composer named Charles Converse set it to music and gave the poem a new name using the first few words of the first stanza. It is now known as a hymn famous for providing comfort and hope.   

Here is the first stanza–

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

The poem Scriven wrote to his mother is ‘What a Friend we have in Jesus’ a hymn that has become a blessing to millions.

Dear brother and sister in Christ, the friend Scriven wrote about is the “man of sorrows”(Isaiah 53:3)  who loves us so much that he willfully “lay down his life for his friends”(John 15:13). 

So let’s do what he commands us to do (John 15:14). 

Dear Lord Jesus I thank you for choosing me as your friend. Please help me as I attempt to do what you command me to do. Amen.