Day 18 - Good Times

So its Saturday...the weather is so beautiful. Last night it was nice and cool out (finally). Ralph and I went to a friends house to hang out after teaching class. We spent time preparing and eating vegetarian "Daniel-Fast Friendly" meals. It was so much fun. I'm learning new recipes each day to help us through this long 40 days of just brown rice, fruits, vegetables, sprouted grains and fish. I'll post up later, a few really cool recipes that I've come across. Anyway, we made fresh hummus last night for the first time. It was an okay attempt. We enjoyed it either way. ;o) Then we sat around talking and laughing for hours. It was great! Its nights like those that prove to me that we don't have to go anywhere and spend lots of money to have a good time. Just quality time with great friends laughing. It makes me realize just how blessed Ralph and I are.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 - (The Value of a Friend) - Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor.10 For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. 11 Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? 12 Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

I mean, there are so many people that don't have friends or just great acquaintances even. So many people long to have great friendships but go about it with the wrong intentions. If you are there to rely on friendships for validation or self esteem, or to fill an empty void you
have inside of insecurity, then its for the wrong reasons. If you feel you have no one around to talk to but in fact have tons of people around you that do talk to you, then something is wrong. That is where knowing who you are in Jesus Christ takes effect. I love that although none of us are perfect in any which, way, shape or form, we all stand strong as believers in Christ and don't rely on another to make us happy or make us feel wanted. Jesus is the best friend anyone could ever want!

John 15:9-17 - “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.


If you have this longing or empty void inside you that needs that, then that is where you are in serious need of Jesus! He fills that void. He fills that longing that you have to seek after people or friends to feel loved. God is love! When you walk in love and walk in the certainty of Christ, there is no void. Its filled with the Holy Spirit. There is no room for emptiness. Then those areas in your life where you feel like you need someone to validate you, or esteem you, begin to fade away. Leaving no room for offense which is like a cancer that eats away at you day by day.

Proverbs 17:22 - A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones. 

Proverbs 18:19 - A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, And contentions are like the bars of a castle.

Its gets to a point where you have no joy inside you and it eats away at your life (spiritually and physically). Its tough to be friends or acquaintances with others who constantly harbor offense and pride. Its difficult to fellowship with people like that. It makes for really awkward company so to speak.

Proverbs 17:1 - Better is a dry morsel with quietness, Than a house full of feasting with strife.

Proverbs 17:14-17 - The beginning of strife is like releasing water; Therefore stop contention before a quarrel starts. ¹⁵ He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, Both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD. ¹⁶ Why is there in the hand of a fool the purchase price of wisdom, Since he has no heart for it? ¹⁷ A friend loves at all times, 

On the other hand, we as TRUE believers in Christ, have to walk in love no matter what. We have to consistently check our hearts to make sure our intentions are not to wish they would trip on their own pride or offense, but rather to be there to pray and intercede for them in love, to be encountered by Jesus. To know what real love is. To know the fullness of joy.

Proverbs 17:3 - The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the LORD tests the hearts. 

I used to feel like that. I felt like I had to have friends around me at all times because I felt unloved in other areas of my personal life. I felt like maybe having friends around all the time, would fulfill the emptiness I felt. It wasn't until I truly met my best friend (JESUS) that I was able to have REAL friendships. I was able to have friendships without the co-dependency. I was able to be friends with many people and not worry or have fear of being rejected by anyone. I knew that no matter who comes and goes in my life, I was going to be fulfilled with joy unspeakable and assurance of the fact that Jesus will never leave me nor forsake me. He will always be there for me. Standing on that truth gives me strength and confidence to have many relationships with friends. I am truly blessed. Not because of friendships alone, but because I have the assurance of the Father in Heaven. I am the righteousness of God. I am blessed and highly favored. I am more than a conqueror. Whew...I can go on and on about that.Thank you Father in Heaven, for taking me out of the darkness and bringing me into the marvelous light of Your Son!

Deuteronomy 28:

1."Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 

2."All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God: 

3."Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. 

4."Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. 

5."Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 

6."Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 

7."The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. 

8."The LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you. 

9."The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. 

10."So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you. 

11."The LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. 

12."The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 

13."The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully,

14. and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Be blessed!