Friends and Jesus

Dee Brestin, in her book, The Friendships of Women, describes our relationships "like gently moving streams joining into one river, we round the difficult bends of life together, strengthening each other with a fresh water supply. We are free and flowing and unconcerned with boundaries....We are afraid to run toward the ocean alone. We feel a sense of panic in solitude." (Dee Brestin, The Friendships of Women, (Wheaton Illinois: Victor Books, 1988) p37.)


This is from Sharon Jaynes GIG devotional~
What a beautiful picture of the refreshing, refueling, and renewing power of friendship. However, our friends were never intended to meet our greatest need to be in relationship. No woman - or man- can fill all our emotional needs, and if we look to one friend for everything or even a few, we'll be doomed to disappointment. That is an empty place only Jesus can fill.

I have found that when I feel empty inside and try to grasp desperately at friends to fill the void, I come up emptier than before. At those low points, friendships seem to elude me. The more frantically I grasp, the more elusive true friendships appear. However, if I go to Jesus Christ, allow Him to fill me with His love, I move from needy to full, and from being a taker to a giver. Then I find friendships are plentiful.

When God calls us to come "a little father" away to be completely alone with Him in the garden of our souls, but we go to others instead, we will be sorely disappointed. People are a poor substitute for God.

However, I do believe that there are times when God gives us the wonderful gift of friendship with another. When we find such a friend, we have found a treasure indeed.

This is so true of my life...God has blessed me with wonderful friends but it has always been that He will make sure I know that He alone can fill my heart completely.