Your Friends Are Your Future

Monday Morning Commentary

All month long at Dwelling Place we are going to focus on relationships with our series “Show me the Love.” The foundation for any kind of relationship is friendship. Friendship was never created. Friendship always existed. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit a perfect relationship of three. After God made Adam he declared it was not good for man to be alone. This declaration was before sin entered the world. We do not need one another because we are imperfect but because we are made perfectly in the image of God. 

What is a true friend? A true friend is someone who always lets you in and never lets you down. Life satisfaction goes up when we have true friends. From both a male and female perspective, the quality of romance in a marriage is based on friendship. Lastly, our friendships determine our future. Proverbs 13:20 tells us, “He that walks with wise men will be wise but a companion of fools will be destroyed.” 

What kind of friends do we need in order to walk in all that God has for us? 

1) Samuel: Samuel was the prophet who anointed David and bestowed the crown to him. We all need a friend who sees God’s gifts in us before we do. 

2) Jonathan: Jonathan was David’s closest friend. 

3) Nathan: Nathan came to David to reveal his adulterous sin. We all need a friend who will come to us, call us out on our sin, and reveal our blind spots. It’s impossible to keep growing in Christ when we are unaware of the things preventing us from growing closer to him. 

Most importantly the basis for all healthy friendships is a true friendship with Christ. No one is perfect. There will be times when even the best of friends fail us. Jesus has no longer called us slaves but friends. 

Friendship with Jesus allows us: 

1) To be vulnerable 

Because we are made righteous only by Christ’s sacrifice not anything we could ever do we have the security in him to be vulnerable with others. It is in vulnerability that we truly connect. 

2) Teaches us how to live with grace 

If you don’t know how to show grace, you’ll never have life-long, satisfying, Trinity-like covenant friendships. Because no one is perfect, forgiveness is involved in every relationship. When we lean into the friendship of Christ we have a source of never ending grace that we are able to extend to others. 

When we see Jesus as a friend it changes how we pray and it changes how we see our sin. Prayer is no longer an obligation to impress but an invitation to be vulnerable. When Jesus is our friend obedience is not about earning anything but remaining faithful to God and pleasing him. 

This week remember Jesus wants to be the friend that sticks closer than a brother and longs to give you friendships that reflect him. He has the ability to make you into the friend you have always wanted.

Written by Danielle O’Neil