It's Not Easy Being A Friend

Throughout our lives all of us will experience different friendships. Some are constant and some get put on hold for awhile and then they reunite again. Some, because of our sin, come to an end completely. Only as a Christian can you truly experience true friendship. The main ingredient to a successful friendship is love, and because God is love, if you are not one of God's children through Christ, you can never truly be a friend to someone. Proverbs 17:17 says "A friend loves at all times." That verse pretty much sums up everything, but if you really want to get into the details you have to dig deeper. In order to love someone at all times involves labor and sacrifice. John 15:12-13 says, "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." Wow, now that's sacrifice- laying down one's life for their friends! Now we know the One who has done that for us, Jesus Christ. Friendship is a lot of hard work. You can't just be in your own world, do your own thing and wake up one day and expect to have strong friendships without you putting some effort into it. As sinners it is so tempting to just throw in the towel and say "I give up!", but that is not what Christ calls us to do and that's not what He did with us. Friendship also requires loving honesty. Proverbs 27:5-6 says, "Better is open rebuke than love that is concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy." Sometimes being a friend and truly loving someone means having to tell them the truth when no one else will. Yeah it might hurt for a minute, but when you count the cost in the long run it is worth it. Friendship is a two-way street and if you make your life a one-way path, it is going to get pretty lonely. Let us look to Christ as our perfect example of a true friend, the One who laid down His life for us.

Being "Sore" for the Lord

If you know me you know that I love to exercise and get a good workout! The best workouts are when two days later you discover a muscle you didn't even know you had because it is so sore! You worked that muscle so hard and you have evidence of your hard work even days later. To me it's kind of the same with our service to the Lord. When we labor and stretch ourselves for the Lord we feel it! When we give our all to Him in everything we do and don't just keep within our comfort zone our 'muscles' for the Lord become sore; but it's a good sore. I don't know about you, but I like to be sore after a workout. It tells me that I didn't waste my time and that it was well worth it. It also tells me that I stepped out of my comfort zone and really pushed myself. If I don't even get a bit sore the next day I tell myself I need to do a more strenuous workout next time because my body is getting used to that level of activity. It's like that in our Christian life sometimes: If we do just enough to get by or never step out of our comfort zone we will never get "sore". Are you stretching yourself for the Lord? Or are you doing just enough so that you can tell yourself that you are okay? Compared to what Jesus has done for us, our service to Him is just a drop in the bucket. May we workout our 'muscles' for the Lord in our service to Him for His glory. Just like when you need to up your weight during an exercise or maybe do more repititions for another, we need to up our service for Christ. We need to add more weight, more repititions. Let us run the race with endurance, press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Is Jesus your Best Friend?

For most of us we have best friends, our husbands, wives and diciplers. I know for me, as soon as something happens- whether good or bad - the first thing I want to do is get on the phone or on the computer and tell someone. There's nothing wrong with sharing your good news or needing counsel from a brother or sister, but do you go to your heavenly Father first? Is He the One that you praise first and give the glory to when you receive the answered prayer? When you get in an argument or you're having a bad day, do you pour out your heart to Him first? I think a lot of us, including me, have to keep this area in check at all times. It is so easy to not even notice that we called our friend and vented to them, instead of going to our Rock and our Sustainer first. We justify it by saying, "I just wanted to tell them so they can pray for me". Is that really the reason? God never sleeps, never slumbers, He loved us before the foundation of the world, go to Him! He will give you the rest you need for your soul that your your friend can never give you. Is Jesus the One you run to, or is He last on your list? If you lost everything, everyone in a moment, would we go to Him who is sovereign over everything, or would we grow bitter in our hearts? As David cries out to the Lord, "This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your word has revived me." Do you go to His word when you need to be revived, or do you depend on some temporary earthly thing? Jesus will carry you through this life all they way into eternity to be with Him. May we let our cries go before our Heavenly Father, Lord of the Heavens and earth, Gentle Shepherd, Coming King, Savior, Lamb of God, Jesus- our Best Friend!