THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND

 JULY 20, 2022

Proverbs 17:17

“A friend loves at all times, a brother is born for adversity.”

Proverbs 18:24 

“One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

What is a healthy number of friends?
Quality counts more than quantity. While it may be good to cultivate a diverse network of friends and acquaintances, you may feel a greater sense of belonging and well-being by nurturing close, meaningful relationships that will support you through thick and thin.

Yesterday, we heard from Proverbs that we need to be careful who gets into our inner circle. Will they be people that build us up and strengthen us, and change us positively. Today lets look at another aspect of friendship that Proverbs points out.

The teaching is that A Friend Cares.

In Proverbs 18:24 says, “One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Many of the friendly acquaintances we develop are relationships of convenience, people we share proximity with. You work or live near them, or share some hobby that puts you routinely together. But the moment you move, or a schedule changes and you are no longer routinely put in contact with them, the friendship fizzles. Such acquaintances are enjoyable and important. They can even be the soil from which true friendship emerges, but true friendship is revealed in the midst of hardship. True friends intentionally choose to stay close when it would be more convenient to go with the way the world is pulling you. In other words, as I have seen on a wall hanging, “a true Friend walks in, when others walk out.”

Then we have Proverbs 17:17 that says, “A friend loves at all times, a brother is born for adversity.” A sure sign of a true friend is someone who will stick with you in hard times. Life gets messy at times. Most of us have enough chaos and confusion in our own lives without adding someone else’s to it. Here is what Proverbs 17 is challenging us with. A true friend cares enough to walk in and be present and indeed take on the inconveniences of life and the adversity we all experience. Sometimes it is the very adversity we encounter that can transform an acquaintance into a true friend. Going with a person through hardship has the capacity to transform a relationship.

We all have had the so called “fair weather” friends. Proverbs is speaking here about the friends that stick with us in good times and in the difficult times. If you have been blessed with that kind of friend maybe today reach out to them and thank them for their friendship and for being a friend that loves at all times.