Let’s look again at some of the keys to being a good friend!
~ Have Jesus as your best friend. When your needs are met in Him, you can allow Him to love your friends through you and focus on how you can bless them!
~ Seek with all that you are to become as much like Jesus as you can - Then you will be as good of a friend as they come!
~What is Jesus like? Can you help us list His qualities? Some that you have helped us come up with are: loving, faithful, patient, kind, and forgiving.
~ Make sure that other areas of friendship are in order - 1. Jesus, 2. Family, 3. Others.
Do you remember the box illustration? When Jesus is our best friend and we have found total fulfillment in our relationship with Him, the other areas of our life will fit into place! If Jesus is not first we will be empty and things will not fit together well!
~ Seek to encourage your friends in the Lord and in doing what is right.
- Ask how you can pray for them. Pray for them - and with them!
- Ask them how the thing that they asked you to pray for is going.
- Share what the Lord has been doing in your life. (A special verse, answer to prayer, how you have come to know Him in a new way, etc.)
- Do a Bible study together!
- Hold each other accountable for important things like memorizing Scripture, getting up for devotions, having a good attitude, etc.
~ Examine yourself with some important questions:
- Am I being the kind of friend that Jesus would be?
- Am I pointing my friends to Jesus, or to myself?
- What things do I admire in my friends’ lives that are like Jesus? Do I have these qualities?
- What are areas the Lord wants me to accept His grace to improve?
Remember that relationships take time to build and investment to maintain.
Ask the Lord to make you into, and give you the grace to be, the kind of friend He wants you to be!
