We Need One Another

Dear Friends,

“Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before. ⁸ Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it.”  1 John 2:7-8 (NLT)

We need one another if we are to walk the Christian life as God intended.

I’m an introvert and reserved by nature.  I’m happy with my own company –I just need a good book to read and a decaffeinated skinny latte with a shot of caramel and I’m well away!  However, I also know how important it is to surround myself with good Christian friends so that I can really flourish as a Christian. 

I’ve had people say to me that they don’t need to come to church to live their Christian life.  But that’s not what my bible teaches.  Coming to church won’t make you a Christian, but we all need to be connected, we can’t do it on our own, and we are definitely better together.  There are so many instances in the bible where we are taught to connect with each other.  That doesn’t mean we will have a deep, close relationship with everyone, but we all need a group of people around us with whom we can share honestly and openly, where we can give and receive encouragement, comfort, support, as well as advice, a listening ear and pointing out where perhaps we have gone off course and need to re-focus and get back on track.

Take a look at some of the things the bible teaches us to do for “one another”:

·         Love one another: Romans 13:8, Philippians 2:2, 1 Thessalonians 4:9, 1 John 3:11 (all from the NLT)

·         Serve one another: Galatians 5:13& I Peter 4:10,(both from the NLT)

·         motivate one another to acts of love and good works: Hebrews 10:24 (NLT)

·         Don’t judge one another: Romans 14:13 (NIV)

·         Accept one another: Romans 15:7 (NLT)

·         Encourage one another: Hebrews 10:25 (NLT) 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV)

·         Kind and compassionate to one another: Ephesians 4:32 (NIV)

·         Forgive one another: Ephesians 4:32 (NLT)

·         Teach and admonish one another: Colossians 3:16 (NIV)

·         Fellowship with one another: 1 John 1:7 (NIV)

·         Bear one another’s burdens: Galatians 6:2 (NKJV)

·         Comfort one another: 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NKJV)

Those seem to me to be a good description of what friendship should be.  They are some great qualities to have in my own life and to look for in a friend. God has blessed me with some really good friends.  My life would be so much poorer without them in it.  We make time for each other and we meet up over coffee and cake or a meal and share about ourselves and our families, there are times when we pray together, and there are also times when we just hang out together and have fun.  We look out for each other, send each other an encouraging text or email, or chat on the phone.  These relationships mean so much to me and they play an important part in my Christian journey and living for Christ.

I also meet regularly with a fantastic group of mums who love the Lord Jesus as I do. These mums have also become my good friends.  In fact we met just this last Wednesday morning.  They are my loved sisters in Christ and we have such a blessed time together.  We share together from the heart, our joys and our heartaches, we laugh together, cry together and we pray together.  We learn from each other and are a source of comfort, support and encouragement for each other.  Studying God’s Word together is also a big part of our gatherings.  I love to hear what each one is learning from God as they seek to tune themselves to hear his voice as they read their bible.  In this way we are learning and growing together.  I’m like a proud mum when I see how much they are growing and becoming more like Christ.

I would like to encourage you to make sure you too have some significant friends in your life, people who love Jesus just as you do and have the same aims as you do. These friendships shouldn't be characterised by one of you doing all the receiving and one doing all the giving, it should be one in which both are blessed and benefit from it. 

If you want to know more about being a friend you could do no better than to look at the life of Jesus.

To Think About:

What does being a good friend mean to you?

I've just discovered that Best Friends Day is Saturday 8th June, what could you do to celebrate this?  Don't worry if you've missed it, I also learnt that Friendship Day is 4th August , so this gives you a bit more time to prepare for!

Is there a particular person you feel God drawing you to befriend?  What will you do about it?

Perhaps now is the time to re-evaluate your friendships.  Is there one that needs to be nurtured?  Or is there one God is saying you need to let go of because it’s not a healthy relationship.

 

Vicki

(PS I apologise for the change in font size at times, my laptop is being temperamental, and not being technically minded I can't put it right.  I hope it doesn't distract too much from what I've been trying to say.)