“One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
If you read yesterday’s devotion you may suspect, at first glance, that you are rereading the same one. In 7 years of doing these daily devos I have never reused one. My commitment, as long as I’m able, is to share a new, fresh thought every day. That being said yesterday Solomon’s challenge to be a friend who loves through good and bad times continues in this verse as well. Facebook helps us understand this verse. There are people who claim to have hundreds and even thousands of “friends”. They have people who clicked a button on social media to be “friends” with them. Some people consider the accumulation of these “friends” to be a life goal and achievement. Solomon tells us and what we have certainly seen is that doing whatever it takes to make these “friends” whether good or bad is dangerous and can be destructive. When raising kids we talk about the dangers of giving in to peer pressure. Peer pressure only affects those who care what others think of them to the point of being willing to sacrifice what they know is right to be liked. Those “friends” will take advantage of a person, consume their resources, energy and life only to leave them at their time of need. As a society we have cheapened the meaning of “friend”. Today be the kind of friend who sticks with your friends through good and bad times. #BeTheEdge
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus
