A Friend Closer Than A Brother

"A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity..." -Proverbs 17:17

I woke up this morning with a woman on my mind and heart. She has been laced through my thoughts all day long. I have been thinking about her family, the things I have heard her say, the people I saw her with. I barely know her, but something about her has drawn me to pray, to think, to listen about her. She needed me today?

Oh Lord! Pour out Your Spirit on my friend! Fill her with peace and an awareness of Your love for her. Surround her with Your Presence and show her who she is to you. Show her how precious she is and what You want to do in her life. Strengthen her and overflow out of her onto the people she holds dear. In Jesus’ Name!

Do YOU ever have some one so heavily on your mind you can think of nothing else? Does this person’s concerns concern you? Do you wake up with them consuming your thoughts and go to bed with them in the back of your mind? Why? What reason?

I carry the thoughts to the throne of God and lay them there for Him. He listens, He knows, He has a plan for them. And He also knows that I will pray. Mostly I am unaware of anything about these people other than they are heavily in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about them. The thoughts do not diminish until I have prayed…as much as God wants of me.

I believe that God loves them SO much that He prompts His prayer warriors to pray, Holy Spirit intercedes and stuff happens in their lives. He is wooing them to Himself. He is calling them! What a precious thing that our Heavenly Father who ‘seems’ so far away cares about the littlest things and would ask an intercessor to pray about them for someone that they don’t even know.

This is the gift of friendship that comes alongside, encourages, lifts up, pushes, holds a hand, gives a hug. Maybe a word is never spoken. Maybe a look is exchanged. Maybe there is no asking…but a friend knows somehow that they are needed for a moment, for a day, for a season…

Oh how marvelous is our God, who created us for community! We who are an independent lot, determined to ‘do it ourselves’, actually thrive and become better among friends.

I know this because I have squirmed much of my life trying to do it by myself. I have also gone through seasons of desperation for a friend who understood me. In this season of my life, I can see both roads objectively.

There is a reason for the friends and the communities we are a part of. The listening, the understanding, the prayers offered and the safety of unconditional love is powerful for us.

So as you think on your friends and acquaintances, when they fall heavy on your thoughts…carry them to the throne of Grace. Speak blessing over them and their loved ones. Declare truth in their lives. Call out their worth. Speak LIFE to them. You are a salve on tender wounds. You are healing oil on broken hearts. You are what they need, even if they don’t know it yet.

"Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing."
-1 Thessalonians 5:11