Sirach 6:7-13 “When you gain friends, gain them through testing, and do not be quick to trust them. For there are friends when it suits them, but they will not be around in time of trouble. Another is a friend who turns into an enemy, and tells of the quarrel to your disgrace. Others are friends, table companions, but they cannot be found in time of affliction. When things go well, they are your other self, and lord it over your servants. If disaster comes upon you, they turn against you and hide themselves. Stay away from your enemies, and be on guard with your friends.” This episode talks about why it is so important to have good friends with you on your faith journey. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Good Friends Are So Important
Sirach 6:7-13 “When you gain friends, gain them through testing, and do not be quick to trust them. For there are friends when it suits them, but they will not be around in time of trouble. Another is a friend who turns into an enemy, and tells of the quarrel to your disgrace. Others are friends, table companions, but they cannot be found in time of affliction. When things go well, they are your other self, and lord it over your servants. If disaster comes upon you, they turn against you and hide themselves. Stay away from your enemies, and be on guard with your friends.”
When I looked at Sirach 6 there was a whole section of friends and what we should and shouldn’t do regarding friends. I thought these verses would be good to spend some time in because I don’t think we realize how important it is to have good friends. When was the last time you were intentional about making the right kind of friends? I think that is something that we think about when we are kids a lot more than when we are adults. When we are parents we think about how important it is for our kids to make the right kind of friends. We pray that God will direct them towards the “good kids.” We pray that their friends will be a good influence on them and not lead them into trouble. But when is the last time we thought about ourselves and been intentional about making good friends?
We are social creatures. God did not intend for us to be alone. This is why after He made Adam, He made Eve, so they would’t be alone. I am not just talking about a partner either. Even if you are not married or with someone romantically, you are still not meant to be alone. You are meant to have family and friends to share life with. Whatever you are going through, it is easier if you have someone going through it with you. Hard times are so much easier if you have someone to share the load with you. Happy times are so much happier if you have someone to share the excitement with. I remember the first time I ran a half marathon was during Covid. There were no organized races at the time, so I decided to run a half marathon through my town. I charted it out on the computer and got up one Sat. morning and ran 13.1 miles. It was exciting for me when I finished, but sort of anti-climatic as I hit 13.1 miles halfway up the hill to my house. There was not finish line, no one waiting with posters to cheer me on, and no medal. I did a group call with my workout girls and a few of them answered to celebrate with me. However, a few months later I flew to Alabama and met those same girls and ran another half marathon. This time there was a finish line and there were people waiting to cheer me on at the end. It was a much better experience.
This group of friends that I met up with in Alabama are a group of friends that I am 100% sure God divinely interceded in our lives and put us all in a group together. We happened to all be in the same mentoring group, Big Life mentoring. However, there are over 400 people in mentoring. What are the chances that we would all meet? We are also from 7 different states, now 8 as one moved, and 3 different time zones. At the beginning of Covid, our mentor thought it would be helpful to start small workout groups to give us a reason to keep getting out of bed when everyone in the house was at home and when we couldn’t leave our houses. It was also a great way to help us stay sane in a difficult time. When the whole world was shut down and we couldn’t leave our houses, we would at least have this quick 10 minute video call with these 8 strangers. It was meant to go for one week, we are coming up on 2 years in April. It was exactly what each of us needed.
This group of 8 people quickly became a really close knit group of girls that encourage each other in all areas of our lives. What I like most about it is that we are all Christian and so we don’t have to be worried about talking about Jesus too much. We don’t have to worry that someone is going to roll their eyes when we tell them that things will work out and that Jesus has got this. We are not all the same. We are actually very different. We have different personalities, different jobs, different stages in life, and yet when we get together we all have so much to talk about because we are so similar even though we are different. We push each other to be better, we remind each other to have grace for ourselves, we remind each other that we are loved just as we are, and most importantly, we pray with each other and for each other.
Our friends are so important. Do you have friends you can celebrate with? Do you have friends that are there for you no matter what? Do you have friends that will sit there and cry with you, or just listen for as long as you need to talk for? Do you have friends that will tell you when you are doing something that isn’t in alignment with who you want to be? I don’t want to have friends that are just going to tell me whatever I want to hear to make me happy. I want someone to tell me when I am doing something that is not in alignment with who I want to be. If I am gossiping and being unkind, I want my friend to call me out of on it. I want friends that will help me get into the kingdom of heaven, don’t you?
Let’s listen to the verse one more time because I think it is a great example of the type of friends we need to watch out for. “When you gain friends, gain them through testing, and do not be quick to trust them. For there are friends when it suits them, but they will not be around in time of trouble. Another is a friend who turns into an enemy, and tells of the quarrel to your disgrace. Others are friends, table companions, but they cannot be found in time of affliction. When things go well, they are your other self, and lord it over your servants. If disaster comes upon you, they turn against you and hide themselves. Stay away from your enemies, and be on guard with your friends.”
I think we have all experienced all of these different types of friends before. Especially I would say in middle school and high school. When kids are just learning how to be friends it is difficult at times. You want to fit and be popular and often times the nice guy isn’t popular. However, even as adults we may have experienced some of these different types of people. I know some of the ladies in the group said it is difficult to share and open up because they have been burned in the past. This is what the verse is warning us against. When you gain your friends, gain them through testing, and do not be quick to trust them. If you are slow to trust people, this is not a bad thing. It’s ok to be slow to trust people. The only thing I would caution you on is building up walls and never trusting anyone after you have been hurt. We need friends and if you are someone who has built up walls and never lets anyone in, I urge you to bring that to prayer and ask God to help you tear down some walls.
We have talked about the importance of good friendships and we talked about the different types of bad friendships. I would like to challenge you all to take a look at those that you live in communion with. It could be your friends that you hang out with, the people you talk to at church, your family, whoever you spend time with. Are they helping you become a better version of you? Are they there for you when you want to celebrate with them or when you need to rely on them? If you do not have anyone in your life that is encouraging you on your faith journey, someone that you can talk openly about your faith to, then I encourage you to change that. I encourage you to join a faith group at your church, a bible study, a prayer group, or some other way to meet others that can help you on your faith journey. We were not meant to do this on our own. If you are interested in joining a faith community where you can grown in the faith and you don’t know where or how, send me an email, I would be happy to point you in the right direction. I would even be willing to start one if there was a need. My email is catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com email me if you would be interested in joining a faith community.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, I pray that you open the hearts and minds of all those listening to this episode today. I know you had someone specific in mind when you gave me the last part of that message. Please give that person the courage to send me and email so that they can get hooked up with a faith community. Lord, we need others to help us grow in the faith. We ask that you help all of us meet those awesome friends that will help us do that. We thank you for all those people that you have already brought into our lives that have touched our lives and made it better. We love you so much and we are so thankful that you care about each one of us so much! You are awesome and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a blessed day!