Proverbs 27:9: “Sweet friendships refresh the soul and awaken our hearts with joy, for good friends are like the anointing oil that yields the fragrant incense of God’s presence.” Today's episode talks about various types of friendships. It also talks about why it is so important to have good friends. The episode goes on to talk about how God wants to be our friend and how we can make that happen. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Friendship With God
Proverbs 27:9: “Sweet friendships refresh the soul and awaken our hearts with joy, for good friends are like the anointing oil that yields the fragrant incense of God’s presence.”
I heard this verse last night at my prayer group meeting. The leader was talking about different types of friendships. The first one was an association. You know people through work or your neighbors. You might wave to them or stop and talk to them. Your friendship with these people is not usually as deep. The second is association plus loyalty. These are people you would be willing to self-sacrifice for. The friends, you would offer to pick something up for them at the store or bring the soup when they are sick. You spend more time with them, and your friendship is probably deeper than that of mere association. You have a deeper level of connection. The third is association plus loyalty plus affection. This is often found in family love. It can also be found in other places. This is where you would have the deepest relationships because there is not only loyalty but also affection.
I also looked online and found an article titled Aristotle On the 3 Types of Friendship (and How Each Enriches Life) that explained Aristotle also has three “species” of friendship. (Click Here for the article) These are:
Friendships are important. Especially this last type of friendship. Aristotle says these are the people who typically influence you positively and push you to be a better person. This is why it is important to have friends who are striving to be holy. Friends who are striving to please God and who seek a close and intimate relationship with God. If you surround yourself with people who are moving in the same direction you are, it is so much easier to get to where you are going. You will see what others are doing to move ahead, and you can do the same.
Our friends can help make us or break us. If all of our friendships fall into the utility category, then our friends probably aren’t helping us get to where we want to be. If you surround yourself with people who just want something from you or you want something from them, then as soon as they get what they want, they will leave, and you will need to find new friends, or you will be left alone. If all your friends are in the pleasure category, then you may also lose them if your hobbies change, if your likes change. Maybe you always go out drinking with the same group of people, but then you give up alcohol. Do you still stay friends with this group of people? What if you have a group of ladies that you always knit with, and then you stop knitting? This has happened to me recently. I made several friends when I joined Toastmasters, a public speaking club. I haven’t been attending the meetings lately, so I have essentially lost those friends.
You are likely to do what your friends do. This is why I said if your friends are moving in the same direction as you, it will be easier to get there. It is hard to go against the grain. If your friends are all going out several nights a week to party, it will be hard for you to stay home and do what you want to do. Many of us wouldn’t want to miss out on the fun. If your friends are all going to brunch on Sunday morning at the same time you would normally be at Mass, you might be more likely to miss Mass because your friends are all going out. However, if your friends are all going to mass on Sunday morning, you will be less likely to skip because you will want to see them. If your friends are all joining a Bible Study, you will be likely to join, too. Do you see how who you are friends with really matters?
The other important thing the leader of the prayer group wanted us to know is that God wants to be our friend. Crazy, right?! Why would God want to be our friend? Did you know God wanted to be your friend? She cited many people in the Bible who were God’s friends. First, in St. James 2:23, it says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God.” Next, in Exodus 33:12, “Moses said to the Lord, “See, you are telling me: Lead this people. But you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said: You are my intimate friend; You have found favor with me.” Moses is talking with God and asking for what he needs. You can dialog with the Lord too! Finally, in Acts 13:22 it talks about David. “And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king; of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’”
God was friends with these men, and He wants to be friends with you too! One important thing to know about these men is that they were not perfect; they were sinners, just as we all are. They did not always do the right thing, yet God wanted to be friends with them. He wants to be friends with you as well. Yes, He knows all the things you have done, and He wants to be friends anyway. Are you willing to be friends with God? What does this even mean?
It means you treat God like He is your friend. How do you act around your friends? What do you do with your friends? What kind of friendship do you have with the Lord right now? I am going to guess it is the same for most of us. We probably have a friendship of utility. We talk with God mostly when we need something. We need prayers for ourselves and others, so we bring that to God and ask Him for help. We might try to do things for Him so that we feel we are more likely to get our prayers answered. It is all very transactional. I need something from you; let me try to do something for you.
If we want to move past this, we could start to spend time with God when we are not asking Him for something. We could just spend time talking with Him. This doesn’t have to be all day, every day. It could just be for your car ride to work, or the time you are in the shower, or getting ready for work. It could be while you do the dishes or the laundry. It could be whenever you want. Just spend that time telling the Lord about your day the same way you would if you were talking on the phone to a good friend. Also, you can’t have a solid friendship if you are always the only person talking. If you want to have a friendship with God, you also need to be quiet and listen to what He has to say to you. Quiet time can be hard because we tend to feel like we should be doing something or saying something. However, I assure you, it is totally worth it. God is speaking to each of us; often, we just can’t hear it because we aren’t taking the time to listen. If you take the time to listen, your friendship with the Lord will grow.
God wants this friendship; he is already there waiting for it. It is not as if it will be difficult to get His attention or difficult to get Him to participate. He is already in it. He has always been in this friendship. He has always been right there waiting to interact in a deeply personal way with you. He is just waiting for you to be ready. The first step is just so simple. Just say something like, “Hey God, it’s me,” and then go on to say whatever you like. God will guide you in this friendship. He just wants your desire and your yes. He will do the rest.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode. Lord, thank you so much for desiring a friendship with each of us. Thank you for always being there to listen to us. We are sorry we don’t spend more time listening to you. We are sorry if our friendship is one-sided. Please show us how to be better friends with you. Please increase the desire within us to be friends with you. Lord, this concept may be new to many of us; please help us understand what you are wanting from us. Show us how we can be friends. Show us where we can spend more time with you. Guide us, Lord. We love you, and we want to spend more time with you. We want to listen to all you want to say to us. Please help us! We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you would like to spend more time with the Lord but don’t have any idea how you would fit one more thing into your already busy days, go to my website, walkboldlywithjesus.com, or CLICK HERE and join my mailing list. I will send you a free audio training on how to invite Jesus into the things you are already doing. I look forward to seeing you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!
Today’s word from the Lord is a follow-up to yesterday’s vision. If you haven’t heard that one, you can listen to that episode, or you can find it on my Facebook page. “The Lord gave me a sense that sometimes that curtain we are trying to push is a stubbornness. We want our lives to go the way we would like them to go, and trying to push the curtain back to allow Jesus in is very difficult. It's a constant battle, and he is more or less saying to me in this passage, "Don't be stubborn and hard-hearted like the Pharisees were. They wouldn't believe it. They wouldn't reply to me. They knew that healing and my grace and forgiveness were what everybody needed. But they wanted things the way they were. They wanted their life the way they were comfortable." I get a sense that the Lord is saying just give me that part of you that’s holding onto, what you want in life that's comfortable, and I will open that curtain wide, and you will see incredible healing that will come from that, not just for you but for all those in your life that you touch.”