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Week 3
With Friends Like These – Who Needs Enemies!
Day 1
When Friends Desert You
Day 2
Nothing will Separate
Day 3
Not to Be Trusted
Day 4
Hope Never to be Deferred
Day 5
Never failing Love
This week your homework will be a little different. We are going to look at Job’s friends – briefly. Then the rest of the week we are going to look at examples from the scripture of faithful friends. You will need to read and journal what characteristic of a Faithful friend you see or don’t see in each relationship. Be ready to discuss this with the class next week. Above all, I pray, you hear from God concerning friendships.
Day 1
When Friends Desert You
The pain of rejection and desertion is very real today. Many women have experienced the agonizing pain of someone very close to them leaving or forsaking them for another. Some have simply turned against you because of a stand that you take in a certain situation. I know from first hand experience the pain of a friend that should have supported me and loved me, forsaking me. This person didn’t even understand the implications of the betrayal but it didn’t make it any less painful. I thought this person knew my heart and yet in one of the darkest days of my life this person chose to betray me.
Have you ever been rejected, betrayed, or deserted by someone who should have known your heart?
What are some of the emotions that a woman can experience when she is rejected or deserted by those closest to her?
How does she work through these emotions?
Please read Job 19:13-22.
How do you see that Job’s friends and family were not faithful to him? What is Job’s emotional state? Where is Job’s wife? What does he say about her?
Do you know anyone like Job? Are you like Job right now? What would help a person who is in Job’s emotional state of mind? Pray first and seek God on how you might encourage another who is struggling with rejection. If you are the one, listen my friend…..God knows where you are. Return to Psalm 139 and meditate on the fact that He knows where you are and His thoughts are continually toward you. He is there for you. Turn and cry out. He will hear you and answer you cry.
Day 2
Nothing will Separate
Please read I Samuel 18:1-4; chapter 20 of I Samuel and then I Samuel 23:16-18.
The reading is long today – but stay with it. Remember that God’s word is our “manna”. It is the food of life that will guard our hearts from trouble and throwing in the towel. Have you ever had someone pledge a lifetime of friendship to you? The scripture that we are reading today is a snapshot for us into the heart of a man who knew immediately that David was the true King. Jonathan was truly a man of God. He saw in his friend David his Spiritual heritage. He believed what had been spoken over him and he had immediate understanding of David’s role on the earth. He laid down his own desires and rights in order for his friend to walk in the future that God had given to him. What a self-less friend. I have had this kind of friendship only once in my life. It has been incredible to see what God does in this kind of relationship.
Journal today about the characteristics of Forever friendships and Authentic Friendships. Be open to whatever else the Lord reveals to you about friendship in these passages.
Day 3
Not to Be Trusted
Recently, I had a friend tell me that she trusts no one. Trust is a rare commodity in this world today. There is virtually no place that any of us can place our full trust. There are countless stories of women today who have had their trust shattered. They have built huge walls of control to keep from feeling the emotion of distrust. They do this in order to stay safe but live most of their lives in obscurity and loneliness.
Many women cannot be trusted. My friend was exaggerating the fact that she trusts NO ONE. She does in fact trust me. I know that what ever she shares with me, I will keep in my heart. I do not share with anyone including my husband. I desire to be the person that can be trusted to the very end of this life. As I talk with women across the U.S. I am finding that trust is at a premium. I pray that you and I will be trustworthy friends.
Please read Psalm 35:11-16; 41:9; 55:12-14, 20, 21; 88:8, 18.
Matthew 26:48k 49 and Matthew 26:56, 58
Journal today about what you read in light of broken trust. Has anyone ever broken your trust? How did you feel? Pour out your emotions on the space below in the form of a prayer to the One who can always trust.
Day 4
Hope Never to be Deferred
Proverbs 13:12 (NLT) reads, “12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true, there is life and joy. ” When I think of the events in life that can cause a person to lose hope – I can become overwhelmed. In looking at life from a purely humanistic vantage point, life is hopeless. If this is not so, look at the earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, tsunamis, and hurricanes. The natural disasters themselves are enough to cause humanity to lose our hope in the future. Televisions, radio and internet are full of people coaching us to keep our hope. There is only one hope that is lasting. It is not found in thinking positively or believing the best about each situation. You will not discover hope in believing that you are in control of your destiny. It is found in the person of Christ who is our only hope. When life happens and it does daily, if we know Him as our Savior, then we can trust that the hopeless moments of our lives are not eternal.
Please read Luke 10:38-42 and then John 11:1-46. The John passage is one of my personal favorites in scripture. Journal today about what you see about HOPE!
Day 5
Never failing Love
Never failing love is a precious commodity. When you find this kind of love you must treasure it and honor it. This kind of love is rare and priceless. You must never take it for granted. It is unique in that when someone pledges this kind of love and then lives it out they must die to their own desires and rights. I have been privileged to know this kind of love. I have had one person love me like this. It is very humbling. It is rare to see another woman love a friend like this let alone a mother in-law. But this exactly what we find in the book of Ruth.
Please read as much of the book of Ruth as you can. Journal today about unselfish love that never fails and how God rewards us for truly loving like He does. Does He reward this love? How? What insight do you find about this kind of love? Pray and ask the Father to reveal His heart about this kind of love.
Holy Bible : New Living Translation., Pr 13:11 (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1997).
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