For success in our walk with God, we need to say I need You, I want You, I love Your presence to Him. Tools of success also include building our relationship with God and with each other. Having friendship helps us to receive God’s blessing in life. Building friendship with God and with others is a survival skill for us. In our life we will probably be able to count on one hand who are our true friends. Then we can move ahead and grow in the Kingdom of God.
The greatest thing that comes against friendship skills is selfishness. We have to address selfishness in our lives. If we don’t have friends, are we being selfish? Are we just looking out for ourselves? God wants us to look for the good in people and not think that they have selfish motives all the time.
As we discover who we are, we must learn to love ourselves as the Creator loves us. We can’t have friendship that means anything unless we have some kind of relationship with God. I have a best friend and His name is Jesus Christ and He truly loves me with every fiber of His being. He watches over me all the time, He thinks about me and He has great plans for me. He cares for me, He comforts me, He is my true friend and He will never let me down or go the other way.
He is not only my friend but He is the one who loves me the most. He thinks about me all the time, He gives me presents I don’t expect, He loves me. He feels passionately for me because He created me. Why does a man want a wife? He wants to feel supported, loved, because he wants to know someone will stand up for him and stand by his side, care about him. God gave me a great wife and she is my lover, but I know she is a gift from God. I love God first and then I love her. That is the order of things, and then love can flow down. We begin to experience the love we need to have in our lives.
Your creator, Jesus, made you as a precious treasure for somebody else. What the devil has done everything he can to steal the precious treasure, that you can be or should be for other people. Right now, you are a treasure to God and other people whether you realize it or not. There are tears at a funeral because people are precious, a treasure, and valued by others. There is a pain inside me, a loss, grief that no one can describe if something happened to Debbie, because she is a treasure to me.
We become a treasure by realizing that we are a treasure. Open me up and see what you can find that is a treasure. That is not arrogance; that is just good sense. We can’t be a treasure for anybody, if we don’t think we have nothing to give others. It is important to realize that we are such a treasure to the Lord. Make a list of the positive things identifying what you can do and who you are, and practice giving them away to others. Be generous to become generous.
To have friends, you must learn to be a friend. Before you might have only been a friend to yourself. Now, ask the Lord to show you how to be a friend. Everybody can describe a friend, but being that friend is an entirely different thing.
If I am the friend I am describing, what happens is that I attract people to me and the power of God begins to move towards me.
God wants me to have friends so that He can pour His grace and His love into my life. Did you know that Jesus Christ has a billion different faces? All of us have the face of Jesus because Jesus lives in our hearts. He wants to pour ourselves into our lives and He does that by building relationships and friendships. We decide that being a friend is good and then we can ask Jesus to help us be a good friend.
Have we been a good friend before? Sin is our enemy in this regard. And then what happens? Jesus starts showing up and doing wonderful things and peoples’ lives start to change. I feel loved, strength, and power. You can make it; you will make it. Nobody is going to stop you. The devil tries to crush us, confuse us and do us in. Why? Because if we begin to understand the Jesus that lives in us, that we are a treasure and that God wants to use us, then it is going to be an awesome thing.
Pick out one person that has changed your life just because you knew them. Mother Theresa was a good example of a friend. Jesus wants to use you to change somebody else. When we are friends with Jesus, then we have His power and authority.
A consistent friend is the only true friend. If you want to measure how good friend you are, measure how consistent of a friend you are. Jesus is the most consistent and true friend. This means giving whatever you have away with no price attached. Whatever I am, I give away for the sake of Jesus with no price attached. I give it free because Jesus gave it to me first. And besides whatever! give away, He is going to give back to me double and triple. So, I can’t out give Him.
Friendship comes when we accept people as they are and help them to change when they want to change. Nothing is going to change unless we want to change. God can point it out to us, God can tell us but we need to want to change.
Friendship is like a journey that will change you and surprise you. People are afraid to go on journeys, afraid to be surprised and afraid to be changed. If you want to be a friend to somebody, you have to walk along the same road that they are walking. That means that you have to leave where you are and go with them. Sometimes it’s not easy.
Friendship comes as we honor others and humble ourselves. How much honor have we given others lately and how much have we humbled ourselves? The one key ingredient in becoming more like Jesus and more holy is humility. I always wanted to be a professional athlete but when I see them with all their jewelry, gold, and bling, I say thank you for saving me from that. I didn’t really want to be that anyway. What good is all that, when we see the Lord?
We give our friends the freedom to honor us when they want to do so. We don’t demand that they honor us. Friendship comes when we laugh with others and laugh at ourselves. We don’t know how to laugh at life or laugh at ourselves. We don’t know how to enjoy funny things God created. Expressing joy is an invitation to friendship.
It is also difficult to have friendship in our lives if we do not like ourselves. This means taking an honest look at ourselves and asking God to change what we do not like. The Holy Spirit is our friend and our comforter. He will lead us through change if we ask for His help. When we view ourselves positively we can give more freely to others. Friendship is a mutual sharing of affection, admiration, and encouragement. We all need daily doses of these ingredients in our lives.
Friendship grows with affirmation, attention, and affection. Affirmation is saying that someone is a good guy. Attention is spending time with them, or thinking about how to make their life better. Affection is just showing the person that you love them. You can’t have a good friendship without these three ingredients. Friendship will be one of the greatest treasures in our lives. Even treasure needs to be cared for and guarded. A friendship is a living and breathing treasure that reflects the quality of our lives. Friendship will be determined by how much we seek it, and by how much we give it away.
(Michael Carr, April 2024)
The Eagles Cry 