Jun 07
8:07 AM
Not Everyone is a Close Friend
Jun 07
8:07 AM
Jun 07
8:07 AM
Monday, June 7, 2021
Proverbs 12:26, Proverbs 19:2
Relationships are super important. I have found more and more that people need biblical help on relationships. We don't always do relationships so well. If we are great at relationships, then why is the world such a mess? It's a mess, in part, because people struggle with how to relate to each other. So today, I want to talk to you about this truth. This is a little bit of a challenging truth, it's going to challenge your views on relationships. Here it is: Not everyone is a close friend. You know, there are three levels of relationships. You have acquaintances, friends, and close friends. I would define a friend as somebody who you might see semi-regularly, you can share a little bit with them, and you remember things about each other. Close friends, or companions, are really tight relationships. Here's what I want to say. Sometimes you can treat an acquaintance like a close friend and you get in trouble. Or you can treat a friend like a close friend, or a companion like an acquaintance. You have to know and correctly define your relationships. Not everybody is a close friend. In fact, here's what I want to warn you. I believe this because I have found this to be true. You have fewer close friends than you realize. We tend to think we have lots of close friends, but they're not as close as you think. I think you have less close friends. I think most of us have less super close friends than we think. There are exceptions, of course. Where do I get that from? Here's a couple passages of Scripture that speak to this from the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 12:26, "A righteous man is cautious in friendship." Why is a righteous man cautious in friendship? Because not everybody is a companion or a good friend. They might be a friend, they might be an acquaintance, so you're cautious. Remeber that you have to pace relationships. Don't go too fast. Don't go 10 miles when the first time you meet somebody you should only go 100 yards. Here's another one - Proverbs 19:2 says, "Zeal without knowledge is not good." In other words, you may be zealous for a relationship, but if you don't know that person, it doesn't work out. By the way, that speaks of anything. Zeal without knowledge in any area of life is not good. So who are your closest friends? Are you sure they're your closest friends? Who are your friends, or your acquaintances? You probably have no more than 5 to 10 really, really close friends. I heard one person say that a close friend is someone you call at three in the morning with something you need to talk about, and not one time in that conversation do they say, "Do you know what time it is?" That's when you know you have a close friend. So, just be careful with your close friends. Not everybody is a close friend. Don't expect to have massive numbers of close friends. By definition, a close friend is a small, tight knit group.
Let's pray. Father, it's so important that we understand our relationships. And it's so important that we understand that not everybody is a super close friend. We may wish it, we may want it, but it takes two to form a close relationship. Help us to know who those close relationships are with, and who they are not with. Help us to accept that. Someone we thought was a close friend is just a friend, or someone we thought was a friend is just an acquaintance. God, help us to be pleasantly surprised that a friend was really a close friend who loved us more than we ever realized. Help us to discern that and accept the close friends you've given us, and to do everything we can to be close friends back to them. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.