The abundance of short, simple devotionals can be hard to sort through. Finding time each day to study the Bible can be tough, so we’ve compiled some good Bible verses to reflect on through verse reflections like this from Christian writers. Join us in learning about why the Bible matters and how God can speak to us through it.
Humbling Ourselves for Our Friends
Friends are awesome people who stand by you in life’s most exciting and difficult moments; by choice; by love. God intended us to be in relationship with one another both for support, and as a way to pour out the love of Jesus to others.
But sometimes friends get on each other’s nerves and humbling ourselves enough to apologize can be hard.
Let’s dive into this devotional by Kristle Gangadeen, and see how her experience with forgiving friends and a verse from Romans helped her see the importance of strengthening friendships.
Scripture:
“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves” (Romans 12:10).
Written by Kristle Gangadeen
Ten years. That’s how long it took me to pick up the phone and dial my estranged friend. Our friendship began when we were on the cusp of adolescence and ended abruptly due to a benign misunderstanding during our final year at university. Neither of us made any effort to resolve our conflict and our friendship died without a word. At the time, my heart had been too prideful to even consider reaching out to my friend.
From brunch celebrations to weepy calls in our seasons of struggle, friendships are a blessing. Friends love and support us in good times and bad. But even more importantly, God uses our friends to help us grow in character. Friendships provide opportunities for us to become more like Jesus in our speech, thoughts and actions.
Friendships expose areas of sin in our lives that we need to confront and confess like pride, selfishness, impatience, gossip, etc. On the flip side, our friendships give us the opportunity to learn to forgive and give grace when our own friends offend us.
Why It Matters
Our attitudes and behaviors in our friendships reflect our growth in Christ. Are your friendships exposing healthy fruit of the spirit or are they exposing the sneaky weeds of pride and other sins? As you reflect, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any friendships that have been hurt by sin, and to help you make amends.
Do you ever need some good Bible verses to reflect on? We’ve pulled a few of our favorites for our verse reflections that work as short, simple devotions to better connect with God in the everyday moments. See this link to check them out!
