When Good Friends Come To Visit – Pt. 3 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

Subscribe to the ‘Time With God’ Podcast

Transcript

Good morning. As we move through this week, each weekday morning at this time, we’re opening the Bible, God’s Word to us, and we’re listening to Him and responding to Him. God loves to get involved in our everyday lives, and this week we’re talking about such a practical topic that’s a part of life when good friends come to visit that you haven’t seen for a while. How should you spend your time with them?

We saw on Monday that we should celebrate with them, that God loves celebration. Yesterday we saw that, well, we should talk on the deeper level and share with one another the spiritual lessons we’ve been learning as we talk about our lives. We’re talking about what has God been teaching me, what has God been teaching you.

And this just makes the interactions so much deeper and more meaningful than just remembering the fun times, which, of course, you’re going to do. You’re going to be ribbing each other, you’re going to be laughing about shared experiences, but also, you’re gonna go deeper than the surface and talk about the lessons God’s been teaching you.

Well, here’s a 3rd thing for you to do when you spend time with good friends who come to visit you.

Share your pain and struggles.

Be there for each other. Let me read to you from Paul’s letter in the Bible to Timothy. This is his final letter. Paul’s in prison. This is the last letter he wrote that we have in the Bible.

Writing to Timothy, who he calls earlier in his letter, my child, he loves Timothy dearly. They’ve been dear friends for so long, and he’s planning to see Timothy. Paul’s writing from prison. He knows he’s about to be put to death, and he asks Timothy to come to him, and here’s Paul’s words to Timothy. He says to Timothy:

Do your best to come to me soon, for Demus, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crean has gone to Galatia. Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come. Also the books and above all the parchments.

Hope 103.2 is proudly supported by

You can just see this is a normal letter to our friend, right? On your way, can you stop by and pick up these things for me?

Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. At my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it, so I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

What do we learn from this about seeing old friends, people who are dear to us when they come to visit?

This is the time to just share deeply, right? Sometimes when our good Christian friends come to visit, we want to put on a front like, we’re doing great. Everything’s awesome. That’s not the time to put on a front. You’re with your dear friends now. It’s time to share your pain and struggles, to be there for each other. Yes, you’re going to be laughing and drawing up the good memories that make those visits meaningful, but also you’re going to share your pain, your struggles, you’re going to pray with one another, you’re gonna be there for each other. I think of times I’ve visited dear friends I haven’t seen for a long time when I’ve been going through terrible things.

When you see them, you almost want to start crying just because here’s a safe haven. Someone you can share with those deep things. And you know that they’re just going to love you and strengthen you, encourage you, and show you compassion. That’s what you need from good friends.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.