Who can you turn to when you are hurting, when you have questions, when you want to share a new revelation? Godly friends help encourage you and help you when you stumble, but where and how can you find them?
Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
Proverbs 27:17
Good friends are important and godly friends are necessary if you want to stay encouraged in those tough times. Just as friends in the world talk and hang out and laugh and joke, godly friends do the same. But here’s the difference, you can talk to these friends about God, you can get wise advice from them, you don’t have to worry about compromising your faith or falling away because they won’t participate in ungodly things (ungodly does not mean secular, it means something that goes against the Word). A godly friend will comfort and edify you. They will encourage you to do good works for the Lord. Do you have any godly friends in your life?
Another one of the great benefits to having godly friends is that they won’t enable your wrongdoing. While you grow together in the faith and are both learning and working out your own salvation, they will call you out on your misdeeds because they love you. They don’t want to see you fall away and will do their best to guide you back to God. Sounds pretty awesome, right?
But where do you find such friends?
Church, Bible study/small groups, retreats and other church events, concerts…the list is really long but these are some good places to start. If you are at one of the above events and you begin talking to someone you may find you have a lot in common. But be mindful, not everyone who goes to church is saved and some concert attendees may just like the music. Just as in the world, you have to truly examine them as you get to know them and if you see things in their life that are not godly, while you can consider them an acquaintance or colleague, be wary of getting too close. Even if they seem like a good person, they can lead you astray.
A godly friend won’t mind coming to church with you or going to see a Christian movie, you can talk to them about the Word. They won’t just recite scripture, they’ll converse with you. You can trust and rely on them. When you get a new revelation of the Word, they’ll be excited with you.
Be a friend to someone today.
