.jpg)
Each summer birthday my family would be vacationing on a campground somewhere USA. Mom always retold stories of before the campsite being set I would have gone and come back with a trail of new friends. Making friends was never hard for me, but today I can’t name any of those friends. Showing friendliness is very different from being a friend, isn’t it? We can see in scripture, friendships were part of God’s design. If we use Proverbs 17 as the litmus test to friendship, and we should, I realize am a blessed woman.The Lord has given me true friends.
I really want to say it’s easy love in the celebratory times, but isn’t it true some women have a hard time rejoicing with others? Whether from jealousy or judgement, some who claim the title friend aren’t with us even on the mountaintops. That’s not a friend, God says a friend loves at all times, all. Hard times foster a greater need but leave an even easier out, because dealing with disappointments, despair, and death take a real toll and require great effort from each of us. Painfully true, in the pits of life it becomes a bit clearer who our friends truly are.
To be a friend we must be friendly. Very often I find myself sitting with and serving women who need a friend, but in truth, biblical friendship is reciprocated. Even when we have extended the Lord to others through our friendliness and sacrifice, there are many reasons we could find ourselves feeling woefully alone. Too many of us unravel in despair of friendlessness, and it’s because we’re pondering a lie. While we may feel lonely, we are never alone; what a friend we have in Jesus! Furthermore, do we consider the Lord’s character sketch of a true friend as divine wisdom? Who are we calling friends? Sometimes out of simple immaturity girlfriends fail to see how to invest in another’s life. It’s also true some women have a well developed core of self-centeredness and have no wherewithal to look outside of their own perspective, not even for one who has been there with them in the ebb and flow of life. Wether these women are purposeful or oblivious to personal shortcomings with their circle of friends, we should still be Christ-like in our thoughts and behavior toward each of them; the Lord can change them! However, the person Lord speaks of here in Proverbs is a friend. In the rallies and valleys of life, it’s a true friend who loves us every step of the way. Praise God for her! Be her!
Proverbs 17:17 A Friend loves at all times
Dear Lord, thank you for Jesus, for when I am alone I am not without Him, and He is all I need. I praise you for the friends in my life who are there at all times loving me. Each one a good gift from You. Help me to be a more loving and present friend to each of them, and to whomever else you bring to my life. I love them, and I love you.
