The Importance of a Friend!

We all have bad days. I know this. I have been there, done that, and had a kid throw up on the tee-shirt. I never want to be accused of living with my head in the clouds and my feet not planted in reality. (I just know in whom I have believed and know that He is able to do above and beyond all I could ask or think and am persuaded that He is good, and He is God. In Him is the final authority for all things and therefore my reality! - MAN! What a mash up of scripture, but so true!) 

As a matter of circumstance, (I say circumstance not fact, because the fact is that I should not be moved so easily by the things that beset me) I had a bad day yesterday: a really bad day. That is until I talked with a friend.

The type of friends you have in your life is extremely important. They can lead you to death or to life. Let’s look at Job 16:20. Job’s friends laughed at him when he was in his weakest emotional, physical and financial state all because He chose to trust in God. If he had followed his friend’s horrible advice, he would have cursed God and died a spiritual death (because God would not allow him to die in the natural at this time). Not the kind of friends I want to surround myself with.

Proverbs 11:30 says “A wise person wins friends.” And Proverbs 12:26 says “godly friends give good advice to one another” and that the “wicked lead them away”.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 (Amplified) says

Therefore encourage (admonish, exhort) one another and edify (strengthen and build up) one another, just as you are doing.  

Edify in the Strong’s Concordance (3618) is build a house, build up from the foundation, establish, to promote growth, wisdom and grace in one another. Encourage (Comfort in the King James Strong’s 3870) means to call to one’s side to speak to with the intent to edify, to exhort, to comfort, to instruct.

These are the traits of a real friend. They promote growth in us. They challenge us when we are wrong to repent, to dig into the word, and to question why we believe the way we believe. A real friend, when they see us do wrong, does not turn a blind eye, but calls us on it. 2 Corinthians 13:11 says “be joyful, grow to maturity, encourage one another, live in harmony and peace, THEN the God of love and peace will be with you.” Having Godly friends that encourage you is a sign of growth and maturity in us. It teaches us to walk in harmony and peace.

Colossians 3:16 says we are supposed to teach one another and admonish one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Look, I don’t expect your life to be filled with your friends bursting into song like the Christian version of “Glee” (For me that would be fine, but I am weird as my friends know and tell me - often) but I believe that God expects us to encourage one another by worshipping together, sharing our personal revelations and urging one another to acts of faith.

Despite the many times I have been accused of this, I do not know it all, and I need someone to teach me. So today, in the midst of my “bad” day, I went to a friend. She understood my frustrations and she even let me ramble for a while about my “problems”, but then she cut me off, and was a godly friend. She admonished me to love, to understand, to pray, and to reclaim the territory I gave the enemy today in my wrongdoing. She instructed, she admonished, and she loved.

By the time I left, I was laughing, full of the Joy of the Lord, and ready to face today. She inspired this post. If the JOY of the Lord is our strength, then good friends are the “work-out partners” that help us ‘bulk up’ in our faith.

To have a friend, we must be friendly. Be a godly friend, and you will find godly friends.  

Be blessed and be a blessing, and remember that friend is a noun!