I remember someone saying one day, "A friend is someone who will give you a ride to the airport when you need it". When I heard this I thought, "How does that define a friend? That's stupid!" However, I thought about it for a while and realized that when you take someone to the airport you get nothing out of it. Your friend is getting on a plane and flying off somewhere that you can't go. Sometimes the airport is 30-40 miles or more away from your home. You have your friend to keep you company on the way there but often times have to make that trip back home alone. When you go to pick up your friend before going to the airport you will probably help with their luggage, and help them again when you get to the airport. You have to find a parking spot so that you may wait with them until their flight leaves or risk getting a ticket or having your car towed while rushing with them and their luggage to the gate where their flight is already boarding. You take them to the airport when they have to be there, not when you want to or when your schedule is light. You may or not get gas money, and a souvenir from the trip. You will get the feeling of being a blessing to a friend in need.
Friends make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they offer a word of praise, and they provide a support when we need it and correct us in love and honesty. Friends sacrifice and share.
Friendship is defined differently by everyone. However, the Bible directs us how to be friends. Proverbs 18:24 says 'A man that hath friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.' and John 15:13 says 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' There are a number of scriptural references regarding friendship. Many like the one's listed here use Christ's example.
Job's friends accused him of sinning against God to earn the punishment that he suffered and encouraged him to confess his sin and be thankful for the tribulations he suffered. They did not offer the support that true friends should have, rather Job was made to suffer alone. His friends criticized and condemned him. In the end, it was the prayers of Job that saved his friends from God's wrath. Job was a friend to his friends in spite of their lack of support. Proverbs 17:17 says 'a friend loveth at all times.'
Be a friend and be a blessing.
