4/18/12 FAMILY AND FRIENDS
4/18/12 FAMILY AND FRIENDS
| Proverbs 17:1-28 |
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 |
Key Verse: 17:17 Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.”
Dear Lord, Jesus, thank you for your loving kindness that fills our hearts with your grace. Thank you for keeping us in your love. Help us to know you and to love you and follow you on our pilgrimage throughout this world. Work in us and among us to share your Gospel to the masses. Grant us one word of God though this passage. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen!
1. The responsibility of children (1-16).
Healthy family relationships are very important for our spiritual and emotional well-being. A family with material abundance and strife has far less than a family that is poor but has peace and quiet. Parents should be the pride of their children because of their wisdom and character. Children also have a responsibility. They should be a crown to the aged. They should love and support their siblings during trials (17). ““A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.” The key to great family relations is forgiveness. Look at verse 9, “Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.”
I pray to have such a family and I also pray that such a “family like” atmosphere may be established in our church, among our congregation members. That is only by the grace of God. The key is forgiveness. We are all a gathering of forgiven sinners. We must forgive others from our deep hearts, especially those who are close to us. How pitiful it is when Christians do not even like each other. It is Christians who are sometimes guilty of not being able to cover a multitude of sins. Non believing kids forgive and forget. Some non believers forgive and forget very well. They actually like being around each other. Why can’t we? Lord, help me to plant the seeds of healthy family relationships. I pray in Jesus’ name!
There are also bad family relationships. Children who become godless fools bring grief to their fathers and bitterness to their mothers (25). “A foolish son brings grief to his father and bitterness to the mother who bore him.” Their foolishness robs their parents of joy. Disgraceful children soon take lower places than good servants, even forfeiting their inheritance to faithful servants. We must overcome this bad fruit. We can not live in this bad fruit. It is the wrong witness to the world. If they see these characteristics among us do we think they will want to be part of what is going on? I don’t think so. They will run to the hills. Lord, make us more like Jesus among each other.
2. A friend loves at all times (17-28).
In all relationships there are quarrels, building of walls, corruption, perversity, poverty, trouble, grief, lack of joy, godlessness, foolishness, injustice, lack of focus, disappointed parents, oppression of the upright and the innocent. I don’t know about you, but this is a little taste of hell on earth. Failed societies and cultures have theses characteristics. Dysfunctional families have these characteristics. This is path we will be led along if we are not in Jesus. This was the road I was on without Jesus and the Gospel in my heart. But Jesus showed me a better way. He showed me the way of life. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. (Jn 14:6) In Him, we have life to the full in our hearts and among each other.
Let’s see what these proverbs have to say about the Full life that Jesus gives. Difficulties and hardships are not times to tear us apart; they are times to reveal who are our true friends. Friends love at all times. Their love covers over offenses (9). They stick with us even in times of adversity when we need them most. This type of friendship is revealed through Jesus. Jesus loves us at all times, and he is a true friend. It is not easy to have friendships in this world. Everyone is too busy…too busy to even have a cup of coffee once a year. This causes me to despair about friendship outside of Jesus Christ. But Jesus is not like this. He is right there with me. He is counseling me and guiding me and helping me. He gives me strength as I follow the Way. Mostly he is forgiving me and looking past a multitude of sins, faults and failings. He is never too busy to sit and talk and to go out for a walk or a share a cup of coffee, sort of speak. I may be disappointed with friendships in the world, but I am not disappointed with Jesus’ friendships and in him I learn how I can be a better friend with others.
In the midst of difficulties and hardships I can reveal true friendships to others. I can love others at all times, even the hard difficult times. I can covers over offenses through forgiving others. (9). I can stick with my friends even in times of adversity when they need me the most. This is how Jesus is loving me now and this is how I can love others. There are many people in my life whom I can practice this word of God with. The hardest is to cover over, what I perceive as others offences, against me. I need to forgive. I may forgive, but I have a tendency to forgive and forget. I must be Jesus and forgive and never forget and always maintain friendships and grow in faith together. Lord, help me to forgive others around me and keep and grow those friendships.
Prayer: Lord, help me to be a blessing to my family and to my church family. Make me into a loving friend. Thank you for Jesus, a friend who loves at all times.
One Word: A brother at all times and to the end.
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