…Making Your Life Count with Dr Humphrey Mutiti
FRIENDSHIP is by preference and not by force. You are the total of those you hang around with. Somebody once said, “He who sleeps with dogs, wakes up with flies.”
We are an outcome of those we associate with either for good or for bad. Our friends fashion our behavior and model our lifestyles.
Friends influence the way we speak, dress, walk, shave our hair, and carry ourselves. Friends are powerful because they bring together people of like mind for a common cause. The wisest man Solomon asserted, “He that WALKETH with the wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” Proverbs 13:20
Human beings are influenced by friends because we are social beings. All human beings drive their joy in friendships. We always want to belong to a group, we desire to be accepted, to be loved and to be cared for. We want to be special to someone or a group of people.
The power of coming together has some common advantages,
a. You have and share a common vision.
b. You almost double your influence if you are two.
c. You provide a ground for training.
d. You share common resources.
e. And the team work makes a dream work.
Friendship in life is not optional. You need friends for you to succeed in life. There are very few people if not none, who have made it alone in life. If you try scan their success you will discover they had someone who stood with them or even helped them in some way. But you will need to be careful in choosing who you relate to in life and on your way to success because a friend can either build or break you. Friendship is one of the determining factors for success in life.
God recognized the need for the man to have another man (woman) to relate with. The woman (Eve) God made was to serve a dual purpose: provide companionship for a man (in herself) and also to bring forth others, who could relate with him outside the home. “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
A lot of suicide stories we hear today come from loneliness. Suicide victims are people who have been alone for too long. Iron sharpens iron. You must have somebody that you can be in touch, in contact and relate to if you are to succeed in this life. Though one must be very selective in the friends he makes because a wrong friend will be a dream – killer and heart – breaking. A friend is like a lift; he can take you up or down.
Examples of Bad Friendships
Abraham and Lot
Abraham’s relationship with Lot marred his vision. He could neither see nor walk into his inheritance in God. Though God had told Abraham to leave his country to a land, which He would show him, yet it was not until Lot left him that God showed him the land. Sometimes we may not see who we are until we discard the wrong friends around us.
Rehoboam with friends
Rehoboam, King Solomon’s son, fell a prey to his young friends and thereby brought about the division of the nation of Israel. The friends of the prodigal son helped him out of his plenty, into abject poverty. Some people we call friends are only in our lives to finish us or for what they can take from us. They are there only to take us out of plenty into abject poverty.
Ammon with Jonadab
Ammon’s friendship with Jonadab led him to sin, which eventually took his life. The reason was because Jonadab was a very craft man. Listen to me, the less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve.
Examples of good friendships
David and Jonathan
David’s throne was preserved through his relationship with Jonathan. Good friends will perverse your dream and throne.
Elisha and Elijah
Elisha’s relationship with Elijah gave him a double anointing.
We can therefore, deduce that there is one major thing about relationships. They can either make you or break you. Someone once said, “He that sleeps with a dog, wakes up with flies.” “Be not deceived: evil communication corrupt good manners.” 1 Corinthians 15:33
If you want a sorrow – free progress, be highly selective of the company you keep. The choice of company is your responsibility. No relationship takes place without agreement between two parties involved.
In closing, let me leave you with the following points;
Never become friends with someone because you both agree on negatives. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Amos 3:3
Right relationships are supposed to result in progress. Wood does not sharpen iron; so any iron that relates with wood becomes blunt and the wood also suffers reduction is size, as it is chopped off. None of the parties involved in a wrong relationship profit in any way. Negative influences have greater power of pulling people down. Have nothing to do with wood type of friends and those that abandon you in your hard times.
Do not find faults with those who have gone ten steps ahead of you, instead get close to them and learn their secret to get where they are.
Find a friend you will share your dreams, testimonies with and provoke each other for good works. What readily comes to mind is this relationship is that of between Paul and Timothy and that of between Jesus and His disciples. In this relationship, the older is to serve as a teacher and a leader. He sows or invests his knowledge in the younger one, who in turn receives it for his benefit. The older person is rewarded with the satisfaction he gets when the younger person performs excellently well.
Author: Dr. Humphrey Mutiti is a missionary and church planter in South Africa, called into the ministry of prayer, a conference speaker, with a Diploma in Missions, two Ph.Ds. – one in Ministry and the other in Theology. He is serving as a National overseer and an instructor (South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia for the Great Commission Bible Institute), is an author of several books, writes his monthly articles in “The Christ Tabloid” Newspaper in Durban and runs a daily ‘MOMENT OF REFRESHING’ program on Facebook, Instagram, and on WhatsApp. On the YouTube channel he is running a program ‘Making Your Life Count’, and is currently studying for another Ph.D. in the school of Law with the Atlantic International University (USA). Until now he is the founder and presiding pastor of Covenant Church International.
Look out for next MAKING YOUR LIFE COUNT on Kalemba.news on Thursday.
For feedback contact Cell: +27712231321,
Email: [email protected]
