Friends and Fellowship
By soundmindandheart In Uncategorized On January 31, 2016
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:13 NLT
Who would you give your life for? Your spouse? Your child? Jesus gave his life that we can be saved. This is true friendship.
How many real friends do you have? My daughter struggles in this area. It amazes her how many real friends that I have. Many, many people are isolated in this life. The people that they are with most of the time betray them and are mean to them. They know nothing else. Why does this happen?
There are several reasons why we struggle with friends. The first is to have friends you must be a friend. I work very hard to treat others the way that I want to be treated. I try to always be loyal, kind and supportive. Honest is also important in friendship. How can you have friends when you aren’t a good friend. In this society, we are isolated due to our electronic communications and lifestyles. Gaming, Facebook, texting, email, fences around our yards and the lack of effort to do new things or see new places all work against us with making friends. Face to face interaction and conversation does not happen often enough. We must make time to see people and go places with them to build relationships. Another reason that people struggle with having friends is that they always choose the wrong type of people. One of my favorite evangelists often speaks of making people balcony people in our lives. What this means is that we need to look at those in our life and put the ones that just need to observe our lives in the balcony to view our lives, but not be in our lives close to us all the time. Sometimes family and friends must be repositioned to allow us to be what God wants us to be. I am not saying that you cut them out of your life, you just reposition them so that you have room to grow into the man or woman of God that you are meant to be.
After Jesus ascended into heaven, the early church had it right in relation to friends:
Acts 2:42
All believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals(including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. NLT
If you want more freedom in the Lord, we would love to help you. Please visit our website www.soundmindandheart.com for more information or to place a prayer request. You may also call 618-203-3444 for an appointment.
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