Posts Tagged: friends

friends — 1 Comment
9
Jul 09

Friendship

Of all the things I value, my friends are at the top of the list. I know the appropriate response here would be God or my family, but at times I am reminded of God and my family through conversations with my friends. In actuality, my friends are like a part of my family and seem like a gift from God to me.

The beauty of my friends is that I don’t see or speak with them every day. They are not tainted by my past thoughts, actions, or words–they only hear and see the present. They can speak to me based on where I’m at, rather than through the lens of where I’ve been. It gives me a fresh perspective and keeps me from being stuck in my shortcomings or fears. They encourage me and discourage me…they compliment and criticize…they teach and they learn…they listen before they speak…they love and never hate.

I’m still amazed at how many people I have been able to consider friends. I have four really good friends that I have known since my high school & college days. These have proven to be my friends no matter what is going on or what could come between us. However, these friends aren’t Christians. They are not in ministry. To them, something like me struggling in my finances causes them to immediately go back to my time when I made a six figure annual income from a business I had built from nothing and say something like, “Just go back and work on your business again.” In other words, their responses to my situations are usually worldly in nature. I can’t expect anything else from them. I can’t make them truly understand my calling and the ups-and-downs that go with that. However, in the past year I have been connected with some really great people that have helped me with my perspective as a Christian and a church planter–even as a husband and father.

I ask that you pause and consider something for a moment. Think about those around you that you consider to be your friends. How do they speak into your life? How do you speak into their lives? Do you call upon them only when you need something? Do they only call you in troubled times? Can you feel and hear their presence even when you are not together?

I truly believe that the people we surround ourselves with are very important. In addition, who we are to other people is equally as important. Surround yourself with people that will speak the truth to you, not just lift you up and make you feel good. Find people that won’t leave you when you no longer serve as a benefit to them. Be connected to people that don’t always see things the way you see them and learn from each other. Through this process you will end up with people that you can truly consider to be your friends. There is so much more I could say about this, but it is the unwritten parts of this story that cause us to reflect on the special and unworthy things we can only experience through our relationships with good friends. We will always have God and family, but it is rare to find a friend that we can always count on.

May you be as blessed and humbled as I am through friendships.

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Dave (personal) / God / friends / ministry / prayer — No Comments
18
Nov 08

The power of praying friends!

When I was feeling lost and hopeless, I shared my struggle with my friend David Meysembourg through a message on facebook. Once I hit the “send” button I felt a little odd. Why did I burden my busy friend with my stupid situation? I know what ministry and church planting calls me to sacrifice and work through, so I feel like such a dummy for crying on his shoulder. It was an impulse thing I did, that had I thought more about it, I probably would have never even written that message. Well, instead of just telling me to keep my chin up and hang in there, he replied with an awesome prayer that was so amazing that I was humbled and convicted. It was if this prayer had so much power that I could not even get myself to speak this to my God without fear that he would call me out for coming before him without believing it with all of my heart and soul. I was in a pretty dark place and God knew it.

As I am seeking God for where he will order my steps to go next, I am focusing on getting to a place where this prayer can have the meaning that God wants it to have from my heart to his ear. As I share this prayer with you, I pray that God may use this prayer to speak powerfully to where you are at and to have you present yourself before God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of God:

God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say
before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too— your reassuring presence, coming and going.

This is too much, too wonderful— I can’t take it all in!

Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, You’d find me in a minute— you’re already there waiting!

Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light! It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!

I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.

Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful! God, I’ll never comprehend them! I couldn’t even begin to count them— any more than I could count the sand of the sea.

Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you! And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!

And you murderers—out of here!— all the men and women who belittle you, God, infatuated with cheap god-imitations.

See how I hate those who hate you, God, see how I loathe all this godless arrogance; I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.
Your enemies are my enemies!

Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—
then guide me on the road to eternal life.

Lord, we lift this psalm to you in Jesus’ name, amen.

Father, thank you for caring for me so much that you would send this powerful prayer to me through the blessing I know as David Meysembourg. What a great friend who is there for me whenever I call–a friend that inspires me and encourages me to trust in you and to live the life you’ve called me to live, whether it be in the church, the board room, or a classroom. My life belongs to you and I pray that I may have the humility and faithfulness to let you use me in your way, rather than have me turn away and do things my way. In the name of Jesus, amen.

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Bible / God / life / people / prayer — No Comments
10
Jul 08

Daily Devotion: Proverbs 10

We finally have made it to the beginning of Proverbs where there are multiple two-line proverbs that speak to different things. From Proverbs 10, verse 12 comes:

Hatred stirs up dissension,
but love covers over all wrongs.

This is something that I deal with almost every day in ministry. Someone does something to wrong another and it is held against them. It doesn’t matter how silly or meaningless the act is, it just takes one thing to set some people off and cause them to hate and be unforgiving for the rest of their lives. In the end, where does that get us? We end up being hateful and hurt as long as we carry the weight of that wrong around on our shoulders!

I used to be one of those people that held grudges, sometimes to the pointing of hating others for what they had done against me. However, through gaining an understanding of how much negative energy I stored up within myself and how easily I could learn to hate others for petty things just got me to thinking I didn’t want to live that way. It took coming to know Jesus and having the Holy Spirit convicting me of the ways of peace, but when it came upon me it was if a huge burden had been lifted from my spirit. Through that experience I came to find out that I had forgiveness in my heart for others and replaced feelings of hate with feelings of love and patience. This has served me well even with situations in my own family where I feel someone took advantage of me or disrespected me or maybe even disliked me for whatever reason. It’s just not worth it! Love covers over all things and even if it’s the other person that wronged me, I can take the responsibility to forgive them and show them I am not hateful in order for them to see that I do in-fact carry love for them in my heart.

Is there someone you stopped talking to or maybe even wished ill-will towards them because of something they did to you? Is it time for you to maybe forgive them of what they did and reach out to them again with your friendship and love? Don’t let the negative spirit of hate ruin your relationships. Experience the joy and peace of learning to forgive and love others, forgetting about the past and looking forward to the future. Isn’t that what friends or family are called to do anyways?

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