When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples … (Matthew 11:3a)

John the Baptist was in prison because he preached about Jesus and because he stepped on some toes – namely, the toes of the king because he said King Herod’s marriage was wrong (see Mark 6:17-18). But even though John was in prison and was blacklisted by the king, his friends still came to see him. Do you think that took a lot of nerve, to still associate with someone you knew would be killed, someone the “higher ups” in society didn’t approve of? On one level it did – if they were concerned about what other people thought. But if they were more concerned about their friend’s welfare and about what God would want them to do, then visiting John the prisoner was a no-brainer. It’s what any true friend would have done, and it’s what we should do for our friends today.

Everybody goes through ups and downs, when things are great and when things are awful. What kind of friend are you in these times? Or how do you friends treat you if you’re the one on the downswing? True friends stick beside each other no matter what and do whatever they can to help each other. If you have friends like that, hold them close and work hard to be the best friend you can for them. You never know when one of you might end up in a hard place and need every bit of help you can get.