Tuesday June 14, 2022.

Making Friends The Right Way For Mutual Benefits.

Scripture References: Psalm 119:61-64; Prov. 27:15-17.

Exposition:

Friendship for mutual benefits is basically talking about choosing a peer as a friend with whom you can share and also receive any benefits. Such friendship has the capacity to direct the course of your destiny. It happened to David and Jonathan, Amnon and Jonadab.

We learnt yesterday that friendship with God through Christ serves as a good template in modelling our friendship with others. The scripture above clearly points to the fact that, because David loved the Lord and was friends with God, he was also determined to be friends with people who also feared the Lord and loved the Lord.

If we are going by this, then in choosing friends amongst our peers, which is one of the difficult friends to choose, we will definitely choose right. By this caution, we will avoid any friend who does not fear God and thus avoid the consequences thereof. David chose Jonathan as a friend because he feared God. (1 Samuel 18).

Jonathan was not driven by selfish desires in his friendship with David. He loved him purely and was not bothered that David’s existence was a threat to his father’s throne. Jonathan helped David escape many death traps and David also reciprocated the same kindness to Mephibosheth even after the death of Jonathan.

This is an example of a peer friendship that greatly benefited both parties and especially contributed to the fulfilment of the plan of God for David. On the contrary, in 2 Sam 13:3, Amnon had a friend, Jonadab, who gave him a bad counsel to rape his sister Tamar, an action which negatively changed the course of his destiny and at the end, Amnon, who was a royal, was forced to go into exile, where he died prematurely.

Does your friend fear God? It’s your choice to change your friend or keep him because he has the tendency to impact positively or otherwise the course of your life.

Prayer Guide: Father I ask for the boldness to decide who becomes

my friend so your will comes to pass in life.

Memory Verse For This Week:

1 Corinthians 15:33 (NIV) – Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”