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PROGRAM D-7321
If we surveyed all of your friends, would they describe you as a good friend? What is required of us in our friendships? How we can improve those friendships?
I’m sure you’ll agree with me that your friendships are a most important part of life. Can you imagine not having a friend to talk to, someone you’re comfortable with, someone who cares about you, someone to do things with and pray with? Ecclesiastes 4:12 says “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves…” and I know that God has given us friends for encouragement and help. We would find it difficult to keep from being overpowered without friends to help us.
Therefore, we should also recognize our responsibility to be a good friend to those in our lives whom God has given to us. It’s a two way street, and we need to make sure we are the good friend we should be.
Proverbs has many instructions for being a good friend. Probably the most famous one is Proverbs 17:17: “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” A good friend is loyal and is there for you when things are tough. Have you been that kind of friend?”
“At all times” doesn’t leave much out, does it? It includes those times when a friend may not be giving you what you need in the relationship. Maybe a friend hasn’t been willing to listen to you or help you, or has been too absorbed in his or her own problems to think about yours. But if you’re the friend you should be, you will love “at all times”—even when it is not reciprocated.
I know that’s not easy to do, but the love of God in us can give us the ability to love a friend at all times, even when the support we offer, the listening ear we supply, is not given back to us in return. “At all times” includes the middle of the night, or in the midst of a busy schedule. When was the last time you were willingly inconvenienced for the sake of a friend? And can you remember a time when a friend did that for you? It helps so much to know you have that kind of friend.
This verse says a friend is born for adversity. In other words, we are put in other people’s lives in order to help them endure adversity. So, check up on yourself today and ask God to show you how you can be a better friend.