Having Good Friends Around You — Morning Devotions

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Transcript

It was the great Muhammad Ali who once said, friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school, but if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you haven’t learned anything. I think it’s a good explanation for friendship. The meaning of friendship, such a big topic, important one, nonetheless, it’s a relationship of mutual affection between people that works. Aristotle said, true friendship is lasting because it’s grounded in good.

Now that I think is at the core of a genuine friendship. Friendship means realising that another person has played or is playing a big role in your life. Seeing their face brightens up your day, it means appreciating their life and it helps you in your sadness, and you find time perhaps to video chat when you’re too far away to meet in person, means picking up where you left off, no matter how many days, months, or years it’s been.

Friendship has so many amazing qualities for the good of mankind.

So if you’ve got a genuine friend, you are most fortunate, maybe at school, you had a friend with another student, and you found it was good spending time with him or her, and that connection has stayed for a long time. At school, it’s heartbreaking for a parent to see their child in tears saying, no one wants to be my friend. It’s difficult, isn’t it?

And that boy or girl feels a sense of rejection, and that can be devastating. And then there are the fair-weather friends, those so-called friends who don’t stay around for long. You might think they’re your best friend, but in reality they’re probably just looking for the next best thing and they’re not really interested in in you. All a bit artificial.

So it underlines that without at least one friend we feel alone. We don’t have that connection. We have that isolation without a circle of friends to encourage and share life with us. Studies have shown, you know, that older people with friends are more likely to live a healthier and happier life than those who do not have many close friends. Older people without close friends are likely to develop chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes and depression more than their counterparts.

And although family members are usually the caretakers to the older people, they often do so out of an obligation, whereas lifelong friends provide that endless joy with no strings attached.

A teacher was instructing her class one day to write out what they thought a friend should be. A little boy wrote this:

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A friend is someone who knows everything about you but likes you just the same.

Perhaps because we’re on a journey, some days are tougher than others. It’d be nice to call a friend to share how we feel. It’s not that we expect that person to solve our problems. Just knowing that they’re there is usually enough, brings some restoration and healing and new hope. And there are times when a lifelong friendship is the longest, most meaningful relationship that we’ll ever experience.

In the Bible, I found a fascinating verse in Proverbs 27:9. A sweet friendship, it says, refreshes the soul.

Now did you know that God designed us to be in community with each other? None of us are an island to ourselves. Living alone can be difficult and unfulfilling, and friends can see qualities in us that we might not see in ourselves, and their support, love, and their counsel can help spur us on to be our best. And that’s why it’s important to choose good people as your friends. Someone who’ll does not drag you down or talk behind your back.

The truth is that not everyone will have your best interest at heart, and some are only there to take what they can.

You need a genuine friend, someone who’ll pray for you. Have you got such a friend? How wonderful if you do, because it means that this person will ask God, our Heavenly Father, to bless your life, and he will, even if you don’t feel like praying, a good friend can lift you up to God in prayer. I feel it’s so important to have the right people around you, people that are like-minded and actually care about you, because the times when you need someone, you should be able to reach out to a friend and know that after talking to them – you’ll be fine.

You’ll have more clarity because that’s what friends are for. There are some people who are inwardly crying out for a friend. They may not say so in words. They can seem to be happy, but their mental health is suffering because they haven’t got any one to open up to. So let’s be there for people. You should always work on being a better person yourself so that you can pour into your friendships and be a blessing to the people that you’ve got in your life.

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, thank you that good friends are so important. That you’ve told us that we are your friends, may we show that sort of friendship to other people today and always, amen.

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