If one falls down, his friend can help him up—Ecclesiastes 4:10
A friend loves at all times—Proverbs 17:17
I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you—John 15:15
You are my friends if you do what I command—John 15:14
Is there any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a fire?—C.S. Lewis
We can know true friendship only as we link hands with others in a common interest and in love of something outside ourselves. Friendship with God, as with our brothers and sisters entails this oneness, we are interested and compelled by that which God has planned, that which He has in mind. We carry forward the kingdom in His name. When Jesus calls us friends because we obey what He commands, it is because like Him our passion and purpose is, “to do everything we see our Father doing.”
Friendship with others,to me is very important, but also very difficult. I realize that those whom I want to share an ongoing friendship with, doesn’t always happen. Why is this? Maybe it is because we have lost those common interests outside of ourselves, mainly Jesus and His kingdom. Maybe it is because friendship like the other gifts of God have seasons, maybe both. I do know that the richest times of experiencing friendship have been with those with whom I am serving with and intentionally desiring to know and follow Jesus with.
Maybe learning to be a friend of Jesus is the place to begin and as I grow in this friendship I will become a better friend to others?
What do you think?
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2 comments:
Oh how we need a friend when we've fallen down. I wish I were not so judgmental on others and on myself--unless God Himself is likewise. But oh for the grace to always view down people as people beloved and in need of a hand up.
Interesting that a friend to Jesus is a friend who does what Jesus commands! Probably this also has something to do with friendship, that we would regularly do the counsels and desires of those we are friends with.
Probably busyness is a huge enemy of friendships. Maybe we offer to or commit to be friends with more than we can handle. Or maybe, as you suggested when you invited people to post here, if we evaluate the time we are spending watching t.v. or doing other meaningless activities we can have an answer to where are friendships are going.
I do often thank God for good friends--where would my life be without them? I do try to be a good friend. But selfishness makes me a lousy friend at times.
As for common interests/goals, there probably is a time to shed (of step away for a while) a friend when we are aware that we are neither helping them, nor they us. Or when neither of us appears to be capable of helping the other go more towards the Lord. Somewhere in here is the admonition by our Lord to "shake the dust off our feets" of the home that will not receive him or move towards him, leaving it for judgment, and/or freeing ourselves for the places where there is a "man of peace."
I love the Lewis quote and quite concur with it (I think he adds having a pint and pipe in hand as well). I am so grateful that God has blessed me with many freindships. Some have come and gone, but a number of frienships continue with real comradeship and intimacy.
Common ground is essential for deep and abiding friendships. So while I have a number of non-Christian friendships (that I cherish), it is only with those who I share a bond in Jesus that I call close friends. Frienships are also hard work. It takes a commitment of time, energy and effort to make them last.
I had a good friend call me last week. We haven't seen each other in months. I miss our time together. I anticipate meeting with him soon, knowing the past years of freindship will allow us to freely connect at a level that does not reflect the current status of our situation.
I finish with the title of the old hymn, which the reason we can have true friends:
"What a Friend we have in Jesus."
Shane
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