The Importance of Friends

Vol 2 No 22 THEO'S DEVOS

Proverbs 18:24 There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.

Someone said that in order to have friends you need to be one. I believe that and also believe that friends are extremely important. You can often tell where you are going in this life by looking at the kind of people you bring into your inner circle. We all have 'friends' but what we often call friends are really acquaintances. A true friend is someone you can rely on to tell you the truth even if it hurts and that nothing within that truth will threaten the friendship.

Have you ever had a 'friend' only to have them turn their back on you when something happened that they didn't like. Or maybe you have a friend, or friends, who encourage you to move in a destructive direction. If you do, or had, I must tell you that they were not really friends. We throw that word around too loosely these days as we do lots of words without thinking about what they really mean. If we only used words for their strict meaning you might be surprised out how your vocabulary would change.

A friend, as our verse today states, 'sticks closer than a brother.' You know you can't choose your family but you do choose your friends. This puts the weight of that choice squarely on your shoulders and allows you the flexibility to choose wisely. It also tells me that we may end up having a lot fewer true friends than we initially think we have.

I have had the luxury of accumulating a lot of friends through the years and still pray for them and love to find out what is happening in their lives. It is one of the greatest motivations for Theo's Devos: to stay in touch with my friends in some tangible, helpful way. It is always good when one of you sends a note letting me know what is happening in your life. It encourages me to pray for you and it makes the distance between us easier to handle.

Please be careful who you let get too close to you. Our verse today literally says that a 'friend' can destroy you. Now there are mays that you can be destroyed without dying. You can have your reputation destroyed. I have literally had some whom I thought were friends, due to expediency in their lives, try to hurt me for their own benefit. I thank God for His support and help at those kinds of times because He is the only one you can count on when things go bad. I have also had friends that have gone way out of their way to help me and I will never forget those things that they have done. Many of you are subscribers to Theo's Devos and it is my pleasure to serve you this way.

I sincerely pray that all of you have friends you can count on and friends who build you up and encourage you. May God touch you through them and may He make Himself known in your life by working through your friends. Is there some friend that you could encourage today. Maybe send them an email or write them a note or give them a call. You can't do that enough you know. It just may be that they need someone to reach out to them and you have the opportunity to be that person. You never know what your friends are experiencing. They won't always tell you or anyone else.

May God bless you too as you strive to be a good friend.

Theo