The Power of Friendship
PROVERBS 27:9-10
I was once reading one of the books by Myles Munroe about his saying that nothing in life is ever successful without the networking and bringing together of many talents, gifts and abilities by people willing to work together toward success. Surely we are what we are because of the many people that God brought our way.
As people network, their talents, abilities and gifts get lifted to high levels. Relationships happen with a goal of the benefit of one another, but we go wrong when we use or abuse one another. Making friends is a social skill that God needs us to know or understand. Coming together enhances the quality of the life we live and enhances learning. Elisha was a friend of Elijah, David and Jonathan were great friends, Abraham and Lot were great friends.
A friend is a person who loves you as he loves his own soul (1Sam 20:17) Ruth and Naomi were great friends. A friend is someone who will not leave you, even as Naomi spoke. It is important to know how to get along with people, for God will use people to take you where he needs you to be. It is His will that His people come your way. We can not succeed in our living if we take lightly the relationship and the friendships that God has brought our way. May you begin to be serious with the things of God.
During weekends or when the schools were closed for the vacation, having been born of a poor family in the drought stricken area of eastern Kenya, my life, my living was a trial and error. At the age of twelve, I remember I would take my little brother and we would leave our grass thatched hurt and walk for abut five kilometers in the morning, searching for daily casual labor. We would then find weeding jobs from the rich men and would weed from six to six. Alternatively we would wake up as early as three am, walk to the nearby road and wait to be ferried by lorries to the coffee plantations in the rich central province. In these places we would be hooked up with adults, and by the end of the day would get three Kenyan shillings each.
A few years later, being a Sunday school child, God brought someone my way when I was wounded nearly to death by economic hardships. Eller Mujunen, a good Samaritan, risked a lot and decided to stand by me with her friends in Finland and Sweden. They educated me until I was ripe for the job market. May God bless all of them, who have remained good friends and who made me reach to my current height.
Proverbs 27:9-10, it is pleasant to have a friend. A friend is a treasure. It are these friends that God will use to expand you, and without them you may remain limited. Successful living is a people’s contribution. The number and the qualities of friends you have matters in life. Lovers of men will have great capacity with them.
David gathered men around himself: true friends, who were even ready to die for him. True friends are people who will stand with you even in times of death. John. 13:1 says that having loved His own, He loved them to the end. Love is founded in relationship. Without relationship there is no love. It is men whom God uses to help you to succeed, even as you understand them and honor them as they trust you.
May God cause you to understand how people feel about you and cause you to change for the good of the friendship and relationship. People will only respond to your action. When people run away from you, customers run away from your business or company. When spouses’ runs away from you, please pray that God will help you to change and then change their response. That’s when they will start coming back.
For relationships to exist there remains a need for trust. Trust is a place that people can build their friendships upon. To be trusted is better than to be loved. Without trust, love and relationship dies. The number of dying relationships is alarming. It’s my prayer that God is creating and recreating them again. Please begin to be approachable. Someone once said that if you learn to greet people and learn to smile to people, you will own the world. Young men want to marry while young women want to be married, but the secret is to be approachable. Many young women who come for counseling on how to get a life partner admitted that they had not been approachable, even as God sent the right people to them.
Love your neighbor, and also strangers and those from afar, for by so doing you may minister to angels. In Covenant Center Fellowship, Malaba, Kenya we have understood this principle and have invited in as many people as God brings to us. God has used many of these locally and internationally to take us to heights we would not have reached.
I was in my study room, reading about the study of the University of Yale on friendship and came about their findings that friendship increases one’s life, even increases one’s personal immune system, and reduces depression, anxiety and mental illness.
May the lord help you to increase your social network. May God use His people to boost your personal survival and may He increase the days of your life. May He use His people to decrease your anxiety and fears as you learn to love people and appreciate them. May God cause you to stay at the top. May He cause you to understand people’s long term value, spheres of influence and how they can boost your growth and potential.
Some friendships are more costly than others and therefore one must balance giving and receiving, for success in life is also dependent on a balanced life. As you learn to get along with people may every curse of rejection, whether inherited or adapted, be broken in Jesus’ name. May every character element causing people to run away from you be broken in Jesus name. May every spirit of rejection working in your life under demonic assignment be broken in Jesus name. May you receive your freedom to increase your friendship.
May true friends begin coming your way. May all that left you begin to return, in Jesus name. May people begin to come to you easily and may they find it difficult to leave you in, Jesus name. May God begin to extend your friendship network and may people begin to return the favors that you showed them. May your ministry expand its global partnerships and may your friendship ties be strengthened. May your customers begin come and to refer their friends and families to you and your business, in Jesus name. May you remain to prosper in His name. Amen.
