Will You Be My Friend?, starring Little Nutbrown Hare, is the recent follow up to the sweet children’s book Guess How Much I Love You. It tells the story of finding friendship outside the confines of family, which is an incredibly important step in every child’s life.

It’s also important for adults. In fact it is a basic need for every human being. Even Jesus needed friends, which is why Peter, James, and John became his closest friends, though He called all eleven apostles His friends in the last hours before His betrayal. They were friends because He was able to share with them the most intimate details of His life (John 15:15).

Even a stalwart of faith like the prophet Elijah, who labored most of his life alone, needed a friend to lean on during the waning days of his continued battle against the idolatrous kings and people of Israel. Several Morning Minutes in the Bible on An American Missionary ago we noted Elijah’s faltering faith after winning the great victory over Baal and Ahab on Mount Carmel. Sustained by God in his flight to Mount Horeb he received renewed strength and purpose with the promise of a friend to lean on (1 Kings 19:9-18).

In this case God specified the friend as a man named Elisha and told Elijah where to find him. Not only would this man join with Elijah as his friend and helper, he would eventually take up Elijah’s mantle (quite literally) as God’s prophet to Israel. In his typical fashion, Elijah promptly obeyed God and went straight to Elisha’s home and called him to come along to the work. Which Elisha promptly did, though not before throwing a good bye party for his family and friends (1 Kings 19:19-21).

Since the fact that we need friends is undeniable, there are only two questions for us today. What kinds of friends do we choose? And, what kind of friend am I? Do we choose friends who build us up or tear us down? Spiritually that is! If our friends disparage our faith and drag us down into the world then we need new friends. That doesn’t mean distance ourselves from unbelievers, but our closest associates should be people who encourage us to greater faithfulness, and those are people who have faith too. Perhaps even more important than who we choose as friends, is our decision to be a friend who encourages others to greater faithfulness. We may not be Elijah or Elisha, but, like Elijah, we need friends like Elisha, and that can best start by being a friend like Elisha.