God has blessed me - no not just blessed - rather, so very truly and richly blessed me with dear and precious friends. As I am yet now making my way through one of the roughest patches of my life, I contemplated the story of Job. Job lost so much; his children, his wife, property and even his health failed him. Interestingly though, while his friends may have misunderstood his plight and criticized him undeservedly, Job still had his friends. And unbeknownst to those friends, they actually helped Job through what must have been the roughest patch of his life.
Friendship is so important; stark proof of that is in the Word where Jesus felt so strongly about it that He told His disciples that He no longer called them servants, but rather He referred to them as His friends. St. John 15:15. I found some scriptures about friendship that struck a chord with me. Proverbs 27:17 says, Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Proverbs 27:6 reads, Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
I am grateful for those individuals who have been able to look past my moodiness, flakiness and aloofness to see a "me" in need of their friendship and worthy of their continued efforts at relationship with me. All of us need true friends and I am the benefactor of the truest and most loyal friends one can have in life. We each need someone who can see" us" even when due to the circumstances of our lives we have learned to hide behind thick brick walls. I thank almighty God that there are people who tap me on the shoulder every now and then to remind me that just because I'm still a little girl inside my mind hiding in the closet so my father won't find me and abuse me, that they can actually see the me that needs them and longs for healing through that tap.
I told a friend yesterday that my expectations of him had grown too high, but in fact God put him in my life to withstand my "me-ness". I have a tendency to feel less than - no matter what I know and this particular friend always sees past that mess every time and challenges me to stay in my Word and to trust that all that has happened to me over the course of my life has not dug for me a pit into which I should through a party, but has instead created for me steps elevating me to a place of stepping over the challenges that could have and would have taken me out, had God not strategically structured my life in such a way that I would have friends at every step to encourage me to take the step and held me up as I placed my foot onto uncertainty. Like Job's friends, my friends sometimes say things that reach into me and pull out things like prayer, deeper commitment, forgiveness and healing. Those friends may not even have those fruit as their goal, but God put them in my path; nonetheless, to help prune me into spiritual productivity.
So with today's blog I share that I very much cherish my friends and look forward to new friends that God will send my way and I pray that I can be as dear a friend as my lifelong friends have been to me; encouraging, lifting, checking in on, speaking life into, holding up, picking up, supporting, listening to, advising, reciting the Word of God, enlightening, inviting into a place in my life and my heart, reuniting and always reconciling, loving, hugging, ever longing for belonging and finally, living a life showing that friendship is so important that the Bible recites, that no greater love exists than that Jesus would lay down His life for us, His friends.
I encourage you as we approach "Best Friends" Sunday at Urban Empowerment Ministries, to connect or reconnect with your friends and appreciate them. Tell them that you do appreciate them and show them. Thank God for them and be ever referent of the relationship with them. Most of all, seek to build a relationship with Him so that He will know you as His friend. And don't just be His friend, but be the best friend to Him that you can be; faithful, loyal, trustworthy, thoughful, intimate and caring; obedient to His Word and open to His command; accepting of His will and every ready to befriend whomever He puts into your path for a divine appointment.
