FRIENDS

1 Samuel 18:16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.

? One of the greatest tragedies in life is when people mistaken the love people have for them to mean that they are their friends. There is a great difference between what you are and who you are and most people always confuse this. Sometimes even the person himself gets so entangled with what he is till he can't even define who he is!!!! Look at the above verse.

? It says that Israel loved David because of what he was!!! He was a great worrier, he was a winner and so Israel fell in love with him, the reason they fell in love with him, it's because of the victories he brought. Before David killed Goliath no one recognized him!!! Not even his own family.

? In fact when Samuel was sent to go and anoint David in the house of Jesse his own father didn't believe that David was the one and so he never bothered presenting him before Samuel.

? 1 Samuel 16:11-12 And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither. And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he.

? Did you see that, nobody respected him. Now the sad truth is that this is how people judge because they can't see your heart, so when you make great accomplishments then people will want to associate themselves with you and most of the time we get carried away with the "Love" and end up hurting ourselves.

? The other day I read the story of one of the greatest news anchors Louis Otieno, when that man spoke everyone listened, he had so much command in his voice. Sadly though he got sick and lost his hearing and was fired and one of the statements that caught my attention was this ;he said that when he used to anchor news his phone rang unceasingly but since he got fired his phone went silent!!! Can u imagine the tragedy. He said that all his friends forsook him but sadly to say the truth is, they were never his friends. These were people who had associated themselves with him because of the success he had, because of what he was and not who he was!!! This is why we must make a distinction between who are our "friends" and who are our true friends... Your colleagues are not your true friends, your schoolmates are not your true friends, your church mates are not your true friends, you can't assume that everyone that is associated with you is your true friend.

? Pastors all fall into this trap, you know we assume that the way people are treating us so nicely and they are being kind to us they are our friends, a thousand times NO!!. When people see you do miracles and the anointing flow they will automatically get attracted to you, people are always drawn to the supernatural. A pastor is what you are but this is not who you are, you are a person and when dealing with people we have to learn to differentiate the two. I have had to learn it the hard way, there are people you would think that they would die for you only to find out that they were interested in what you were and not who you were and the moment they noticed your weaknesses they started treating you differently, am glad I learnt this lesson so early in my life.

? Remember how Jesus thought!

? Authorized (King James) Version John 2:24-25 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

? As the crowds ran after Jesus, as they behaved nicely around him Jesus refused to be carried away by their actions. He knew how to group people and classify them. You see there are three types of friends, one you have the confidants, the constituents and the comrades. Sadly most us group almost all of our friends as confidants. If Jesus as great as He was He only managed to get 3 confidants ;James, John and Peter what about us?... The confidants are the people who genuinely love you for who you are, they won't judge you but they will be honest with you. These are the people that get jealousy when they see a wrong friend in your life who is misleading you, these are the people that desire your success. Most people live their entire life and never get more than 5 confidants cause they are hard to come by. One of the things that come with age is this, once you have been disappointed so many times you get to choose your friends carefully but you know what?, the Word of God can teach us to avoid these painful experiences early in our lives. 

? This can be a wake up call to reevaluate your life so that you can avoid the heart breaks we suffer as a result of trusting the wrong people. Now you are not going to entirely avoid it cause you can't read one's heart but you will keep them minimal. 

? God bless you