Having Friends
Keeping Friendships Interesting and Meaningful
Keeping Friendships Interesting and Meaningful
1. Do friendship Jesus’ way to have the most meaningful relationships. Through such Christian friendships, He will have you thinking great things and doing fantastic things you would never have imagined. See Together Be Led by Jesus Christ
2. Jesus will give you and your friend(s) the ride of your lives if together you serve Him in one of the many things He is doing in the world. Be open to the Lord’s leading and do not turn down anything without considering that Jesus will be making it happen. You are not limited by your strengths or those of your friends. See Serve God Together
3. Place courage into one another when you discover that what a friend wants to do is stalled. When you help one another have courage to do things you would not otherwise attempt, a whole lot of life will open up. See Encourage One Another
4. If you understand that Christian friends belong to one another, having one friend doubles the exciting things going on in life. Throwing yourself behind three friends and their goals and problems gives you plenty to find meaningful and interesting. See Belong to One Another
5. If you learn to enjoy your friends’ differences, your enjoyment of life will soar. Friendships will really become meaningful and interesting if you accept your Christian friends the way they are. Most of those differences are by God’s design. Others that do not conform to God’s standards are opportunities for long-term ministry as you help the Lord refine your friends and as they do the same with you. See Accept One Another
6. Live with your friends in the reality that you are alien citizens of a spiritual kingdom, on assignment in this present world. This perspective will lead to many meaningful and interesting things. It can be exciting to analyze those who are not in the kingdom of God and understand their struggles in order to help them. See Live as Citizens of Heaven, as Foreign Ambassadors on Assignment
7. With each Christian friend, become a team by synchronizing your differences. Then operate harmoniously in doing good that glorifies God. If you don’t work at this, you will be far less sufficient. A bunch of Christians each operating out of their individuality without concern for fitting together well is disappointing. A harmonious team operating smoothly can be quite effective in offering Christ’s love. See Live Together in Harmony
8. Straightforwardly tell each other what will help the other person. Imagine how interesting your friendships will be when you trust each other enough to speak out truthfully. Such honesty in friendship will open up many opportunities for success that otherwise would be thwarted by too little helpful confrontation. See Speak to One Another Truthfully and Helpfully
9. Have fun celebrating the accomplishments of everyone in your friendship group. This can be a reason to plan exciting parties, outings and the like. See Honor One Another
10. Challenge your Christian friends to love others in new ways through good deeds that stretch their faithfulness to Jesus. There is no end to the good things that can be done instead of watching television or playing video games. Friends need the challenge to redeem their time for heaven. See Spur One Another on to Love and Good Deeds
11. Explore the new frontier of the kingdom of God with your friends. Find the treasure in each of the Togethers and enjoy tremendous blessings. See Seek the Kingdom Together
12. Wherever you go with your friends, add seasoning and make the place, event or situation better. If you become the harmonious team spoken of above, this should come rather naturally. Just relax and be yourselves — and listen to Jesus for opportunities. See Be Salt Together in a Bland, Tasteless World
13. Find a missionary, a missionary team or a family some missionary is working with and develop a connection with your friendship group for prayer and communication, perhaps by e-mail. This type of project will open up prayer opportunities and perhaps the chance to send some needed supplies to another country. See Uphold the Gospel Messengers in Joint Prayer
14. All of your friends have people they want to see come to Christ. Help one another plan how to get the message across. Plan to occasionally include these people in your activities to help make sure they know the great offer of the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Telling people about the Gospel can be fun when you have each other as a backup. See Proclaim the Gospel and Be Light to the World Together
15. Help each other avoid temptation. Use your knowledge of each person’s weaknesses. Save yourselves a lot of not-so-enjoyable trouble shooting. If you and your friend are always picking up the pieces from traps you fell into, the relationship will be burdensome rather than meaningful and fun. See Battle Temptation Together
16. Together as friends use your authority in Christ and your joint strength to rout the devil. Have your “ears to the ground” to hear the footsteps of the evil one and his minions. Be soldiers in the army of God. There are so many battles where Christians do not show up to fight. See Stand Up to the Devil at One Another’s Side
17. For excitement, target a local sin that everyone in your friendship group hates. Then find some practical way, including spiritual warfare in prayer, to defeat it. Imagine what would happen in your community if each Christian friendship group defeated one hateful sin. See Together Hate Evil and Defeat It
18. Carry in your heads the prayer needs of your friends and find meaningful conversation with God on their behalf all day long. There should be no such thing as a boring life with so much intercession to be made for your friends. See Pray for One Another
19. As a friendship group, find ways to avoid unnecessary expenditures as well as deter overwork simply for the sake of unneeded money. Instead, help each other be thrifty and save money for family needs or charity. See Keep One Another from the Love of Money