Girl Talk and Friends

Okay, it's been a few days... I've just come off the planning and execution of our spring women's event at church and now it's wrap-up time. The event was called "Girl Talk: Pursuing the Heart of God through Friendships". We had a wonderful time with skits, giveaways, and our guest speaker, Sue Heimer, whom we enjoyed tremendously. We laughed, we ate, we laughed some more and then we thanked the God who made us!

Sue pointed out 3 qualities of friendships which she noticed from the passage in Mark 2:1-5. This is the story of the paralytic who was carried up to a rooftop by his four friends, and lowered down through it to be placed right at the feet of Jesus. Here's the text:

1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

The 3 friendship qualities that Sue pointed out to us were:

1. The paralytic man was REAL...he was aware of his weakness and did not hide that from his friends. So His friends knew his condition and needs... Correspondingly, we need to BE REAL with our friends too, and not walk around with masks, pretending that all is right.

2. The man's friends ENDURED through difficulties. When they came to find Jesus, the way was blocked because of all the people...but the friends didn't give up. They endured and dragged their friend up to the roof, cut open the roof and lowered him down, right in front of Jesus. So we, too, must ENDURE in our friendships, and not easily give up when the going gets hard.

3. Finally, the man's friends BROUGHT HIM TO JESUS. We want to continually do the same for our friends. We can bring them to Jesus daily in prayer and place them lovingly at His feet.

I don't know about you, but I want to be this kind of friend too! My prayer for us today is that we will be REAL in our friendships, that we will ENDURE through the ups and downs of our friendships, and most of all, that we will each continually point and bring each other TO JESUS...the only One who can take care of all our needs! Praise Him today! He is the Great "I AM"!

MR