Friendship is one of God’s greatest gifts to humanity. You don’t get to pick your family but you do get to pick your friends. While both friends and family can be wonderful, there is something special about making a connection with another human being who is not related to you that simply chooses to take an interest in you for who you are. Life is always better when it is shared and having a friend to share it with can make all the difference in the world. In fact, I firmly believe God often answers our prayers by sending a person to meet the very need we are asking God to meet. The question is are we ok with that and will we accept the person God has sent as His answer? We may be expecting something more dynamic or spiritual but I have found more often than we might realize God answers prayer by sending a person.
Together We Have It All
Our independent spirits can cause us to think we are supposed to learn over time how to be great at everything. Somehow we think if we just work hard enough or try long enough we will eventually overcome whatever challenge we have with our own ingenuity and gumption. Living that way can be tiresome and frustrating. We can choose the other side of the same coin and give up on happiness in life because we determine it is totally up to us and we simply do not have what it takes. When we do this we sentence ourselves to a life of misery. Both are lies that keep us from realizing God works through community and relationships. We were never designed to have it all together. We were designed to together, have it all. [Click here to read my post “Relationships Are Always Worth Restoring.”]
I grew up moving a lot and was not able to make lasting friendships as a kid. Not having that caused me to realize and appreciate just how valuable friendship truly is. When I would move to a new town I would have to decide if I would reach out again and try to build new relationships or if I would simply give up and try to go it alone. The truth is, life was infinitely better when I reached out and tried to build relationships than it was when I chose to keep to myself. [Click here to read my post “I Was The New Kid”]
Sometimes we wish God would help us out but dismiss the fact that our neighbor just offered to give us a hand. We don’t want to be a burden or a bother to them yet we complain to God that we feel so alone. If we are not careful, we reject God’s answer to our prayers by dismissing the people He has placed around us because perhaps they are not what we had in mind when we asked God for help. I have certainly done that before. Perhaps you have too? The good news is today we get another chance to choose the better way. [Click here to read my post “Relationships Aren’t Efficient”]
God sends encouragement, hope, laughter, kindness and mercy by the power of His Holy Spirit through amazing messengers of grace called people. In fact, when He wanted to save the world from sin and death He did not send a system or a self-help book, He answered by sending a person named Jesus. You have so much to receive through the people God puts in your life but you must be willing to make the effort to build the relationship and be willing to work at connection. Not only is there so much God wants to do in your life through them, He wants to use the unique gifts and talents you have to bless others. Being a friend is one of the most fulfilling things in life because it enlists all of your God-given gifts in helping someone else be who they could be.
Still Crazy After All These Years
When I was 18 years old I made one of the best friends I have ever had. Mike Weaver and I became roommates during our year of school at the University of Mobile and has been one of my best friends ever since. We were in each other’s weddings, have gotten to watch each other’s kids grow up, and have had the privilege of playing music and ministering together for years. Mike is the lead singer and songwriter for the music group Big Daddy Weave. He just launched a brand new Podcast called ‘In Pursuit’ and he gave me the tremendous honor of being his very first guest on the show. The topic of our conversation? Friendship. I hope you’ll listen and share it with someone. [Click here or the image below to listen]
More than ever we need to realize the tremendous blessing that our next door neighbor, co-worker, or classmate truly is in our lives. The answer to the prayer you have been praying may be sitting next door on their couch right now praying over their own struggle that you may be the answer to for them. Make the extra effort and reach out to them one more time. Additionally, God may be answering their prayer by sending a person? You.
From The Bible
That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. – 1 Corinthians 4:17 ESV
After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. – Job 44:10 NIV
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. – Galatians 6:2 NIV
