The Gift of Friendship/The Imprisonment of Jealousy

I ask you - is there anything like the gift of TRUE FRIENDSHIP? You cannot choose your family, but you CAN choose your friends! Friendship is a VERY special gift straight from God. How do YOU describe TRUE friendship? Comfortable, fun, peaceful, always there no matter what, love to spend time together, really know each other, love, steadfast, long-lasting, and lots and lots of laughing. These are some of the words I use to describe friendship. The friendship of Jonathan and David is the best example of true friendship in the entire Bible (in my humble opinion)!

Chapter 18, verse 1 says that David and Jonathan's souls were "knit" together. What a wonderful way to describe when two people are best friends! Somehow God takes your two lives and your two souls and weaves them together in a supernatural way that can only be done by God. This was the friendship of David and Johnathan. Please understand that David will actually take Jonathan's place as the king of Israel that would have rightly belonged to Jonathan as Saul's oldest son. But Jonathan rises WAY above this and actually goes so far as to go through several complicated plans to protect David from the jealous and murderous advances of his father. I cannot even imagine the unique and difficult position that Jonathan finds himself in as the best friend of David and the oldest son of Saul and the conflict that this would cause for Jonathan. What an incredible individual to balance both of these loyalties and I think he does this in a very Godly manner and with great integrity! I know that I would not like to find myself in this tense position! Saul even attempts to kill Jonathan for his defense and protection of David in Chapter 20.

Now let's move to the exact OPPOSITE

emotion of true friendship - JEALOUSY! Chapter 18 describes the beginning of Saul's deep hatred and extreme jealousy of David. It all starts with the little song that the women sang after the big victory David (and Saul) had over the Philistines. From here, Saul goes on a downward spiral to get rid of David and live a life of COMPLETE imprisonment to this horrible emotion. Saul is downright OBSESSED with the killing of David. Remember, the Spirit of the Lord had already left Saul and was now on David. The Lord had even sent an evil spirit to torment Saul and tormented this man was! (By the way, this also shows that the Lord is in control of EVERYTHING, even the evil spirits!) Have you ever experienced jealousy so deep that you became obsessed by it and imprisoned to it? This sin is steeped in pride and can only be removed by humble repentance and the complete cleansing of it from the Lord. This sin will greatly hinder your fellowship with the Lord because you become so FULL of YOURSELF that there is very little room left for the Lord to be in there!

I want to share with you a brief story of friendship in my life. I have a true friend and sister in Christ named Cindy. We worked together five years at a preschool teaching one year olds. The time we spent there together was some of the most precious years in all of my life! I grew in my spiritual maturity in such huge leaps and bounds that I am the person I am today because of this special time with Cindy during these 5 years. I can truly say that this time together with her changed my life for ALL ETERNITY! As we grew closer and closer over these years, we knew that this was a launching pad (NOT a landing pad) for other work to be done for the Lord in our lives and that at some point in the near future, we would be separated by the events of life. We did not live in fear of that time and that it would come, but were certainly saddened by our realization that it WOULD come. And it did come in August of 2009. I will NEVER forget my last day at that preschool and how incredibly HARD it was to leave Cindy. I have never cried as much as I did at the parting of that job and from my best friend and sister in Christ. I literally felt a physical as well as spiritual separation from her because the Lord had "knit" our lives together so tightly that to pull it apart hurt SO badly! A part of me was separating from her and it would never quite be the same not working together everyday any more. BUT, as a true friend, even though we are apart, we do not lose any special part of the bond that the Lord built between us. Even when we have not seen each other for several months, when we do get together, we do not miss a beat!!! Do you have an amazing friend like that? God has blessed me again with a "new" true friend and sister in Christ to "knit" me together with - Angela! I am so VERY, VERY thankful for this friendship that God has again bestowed upon me. If you do have a true friend(s) like this, thank God for this special, special gift...there is nothing else like it this side of heaven!