In Time Of Need

Good Morning,

Proverbs 17:17 (NIV)
A friend loves at all times,
and a brother is born for adversity.
Proverbs 17:17 (NLT)
A friend is always loyal,
and a brother is born to help in time of need.

As we go through this life we make many friends. Of those friends not a few are outside of our Christian faith and family. Today we read a simple verse of Scripture that speaks of both friends and brothers (read sisters, family).

We love our friends, of course, and we are loyal to them...to a point. Our family, however...whether it be our earthly, physically born family, or our brotherhood of our Christian family...should be more than loyal to us. We ought to be able to depend on our Christian family to be there in whatever time of need we might be going through and even be there when our "friends" have departed.

One thing that a lot of us have experienced, though, is that we have a lot of Christian "friends" and that many of those friends don't seem to be much in the way of family to us. That is truly unfortunate.

We are all adopted into God's family as His children and even His heirs. We should all fully understand that. I am your brother. You are my brother or sister. We are to be there for each other. Even more so when troubles come our way. But, are we? Do we really look deeply enough to see if one of our brothers or sisters is in need of our help? Or, are we more like friends than family?

You know how it goes, "Hey, John, how you doing?" And John says, "Fine, Tom, how about you?" Now, the first thing that we probably know is that John and Tom don't know each other well, even thought they've belonged to the same congregation for a long time. Next, we know that Tom doesn't really and truly care how John is doing and is only being friendly because he's supposed to be. The same goes for Tom about how he feels toward John. How do I know these things? It's really easy. I know these things because I know that John has never really reached out to Tom, other than the "hail fellow, well met" kind of stuff at their services each week, or maybe in some outreach program. Tom hasn't ever called John on the telephone to do more than just pass the time of day. Neither has reached out to the other in any real and meaningful way to truly be a "help in time of need" to one another. They don't even know if the other has had a "time of need" that would require help.

Think about it. How many people have you called or spoken to and truly, really tried to get them to open up about some need they might have? Now, this would be other than being involved in working together for this program or that outreach or another Bible Study. What I mean is, who is it that God has laid on your heart to get hold of in some way because you feel that there might be something you can do to be a help in his or her life?

I think that's what today's Scripture is about. I believe that we're being told that, although we might have friends, it is our family that needs us most. I think we're being nudged in the direction of really reaching out to our brothers and sisters and not just letting them say, "Fine thanks, and you?" when we inquire about them.

It's what I'm hearing, anyway. You?

Love, peace, and blessings,

David