Not Just Desserts - Martin Wiles

There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24 NLT

They named it Just Desserts, but it was much more.

My wife and I once lived in the small town of Harleyville, South Carolina. Finding a traditional restaurant to eat at required a fifteen- to twenty-minute drive. Until, that it is, Just Desserts opened in one of the shotgun buildings downtown.

The café was small, and desserts were their specialty. But they also served salads, soups, and sandwiches on any type of bread you could imagine—bread they made in house. We patronized the restaurant at least once a week and took church groups there on occasion. Before long, Just Desserts became more than the name applied. We became good friends with the owner and the employees.

About a year after we moved away, we made a trip back to that area of the state and visited the café, just for old times’ sake. Nothing had changed, and the same friendly faces greeted us as they did when we regularly patronized their establishment.

Using scare quotes, the writer reminds his readers that some friends are not true friends at all. But real friends stick closer than a brother or sister.

When selecting friends, choosing good company is important. Bad company can—and often does—corrupt good morals (1 Corinthians 15:33). Over the course of my lifetime, I’ve chosen a few friends I would have been better off to leave alone. The relationship brought me down morally. Instead of changing them, they changed me.

Good friends provide a resource for good advice. Several of Job’s friends came to comfort him after he experienced episodes of tragedy (Job 2:11). Unfortunately, they gave him bad advice. His troubles, they said, came because he had sinned. But that wasn’t the case. Good friends will give spiritual advice that matches the teachings of God’s Word.

To have friends, I must be a friend. A logical conclusion. Jesus said we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us (Luke 6:31). Otherwise known as the Golden Rule.

But of all friends can do, none can accomplish what God can. He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. The only one who remains consistent for us through thick and thin. The only one who will never disappoint and who will always give good advice.

Let others see you’re more than a casual acquaintance. Be a true friend.

Tweetable: What kind of friend are you?

Prayer: Father, enable us to be true friends to others as You are to us. 

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