Friendship

“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for times of adversity.”

Proverbs 17 v 17

Friendship is one of the greatest goods in our lives – we were born for it. God has wired us up to want to know and be known, to love and be loved, to serve and be served, to celebrate and be celebrated.

Have the right idea about friendship:-

• Friendship is not trying to get someone to take care of you.
• Friendship is not latching on to someone who has a life.
• Friendship is not hitching our lives on to rising stars for self-progressing purposes.
• Friendship involves the genuine exchanging of knowledge, kindness, service and celebration.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Philippians 2 v 3-4

The selecting of friendships is an inexact and often lengthy and frustrating endeavour. It is taking parts of your heart and bringing them into the light for a few other people.

Move beyond the level of superficiality.

You’re probably one friendship from a new experience.

Gain access to one another’s hearts.

Ask the kinds of questions to each other that push you beyond superficiality.

Your ability to experience and enjoy the fullness of human community is directly linked to the quality of your community with God. We walk around wishing that someone was thinking about us all the time. And guess what….. there is!

“And then someone enters our life who isn’t looking for someone to use, is leisurely enough to find out what’s really going on in us, is secure enough not to exploit our weaknesses or attack our strengths, recognises our inner life and understands the difficulty of living out our inner convictions, confirms what’s deepest within us. A friend.”

Eugene H. Peterson

Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure but to pour them all out, just as it is, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keeping what is worth keeping, and then, with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.