Sharon Sharing God: "FAN THE FLAME" FRIDAY

Friday, October 21, 2011

"FAN THE FLAME" FRIDAY - Friend

Welcome to "Fan the Flame" Friday.

This is a weekly post that will be "short and sweet" (kinda like me...)

Just a word and a phrase, a sentence or a question...just a little something to "fan the flame" of your creativity!

Today's word: friend

What are the qualities that make a friend?

How is life enhanced by having a friend?

What does it mean to be a friend of God?

Let me know what you think!!

"This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you…For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline." (2 Timothy 1:6-7)

BLOG = "Blessedly Leaning On God!"

7 comments:

DebbieOctober 21, 2011 at 4:30 AM
I think the word friend implies intimacy. You "must" love your neighbor, but you just can't help loving a friend. When a friend hurts or has fears or is in trouble, you don't have to keep it on a prayer list. Your friend's needs are listed in your heart.

I don't think you have to know a person face to face to feel that way about them, either. I think the really supernatural thing about the internet is that someone can share his or her heart so intimately that you become invisible friends.

Just sayin'...
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Chatty CroneOctober 21, 2011 at 12:42 PM
Y O U !
sandie
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UnknownOctober 21, 2011 at 1:39 PM
Hi Sharon,

You are a good friend. A friend stands by you in times of joy and sorrow, doesn't judge, encourages, empathises and comforts. Only Jesus can do all these things and countless more, all the time, but we can try and follow His Example.
Thank you for your friendship

God Bless - Nita.
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bettyOctober 21, 2011 at 3:08 PM
I like Sandie's comment! I echo it! A friend is someone who loves you in spite of your "imperfections" who encourages you, laughs with you, cries with you, also has the courage to tell you if you are going down the wrong road and making poor decision. Qualities are loving, patient, kind, compassionate. Being a friend of God to me means hope and forgiveness, acceptance and love!

have a good weekend Sharon!

betty
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AnonymousOctober 21, 2011 at 5:33 PM
There was a great book years ago by Dee Bresdin - "The Friendships of Women" - I think I still own it in my basement shelving somewhere. So many truths in how women form friendships and the many seasons of friendships. I know that no matter how dear a friend may be, I must never run the risk of elevating that friendship above my friendship with the Lord. There have been times in my life when I leaned more on my friends than on God. I've learned to hold my friends more gently - loosely, even. Giving them room in their lives, too, for keeping the Lord their BFF.

Thankful for my Blogworld friends, like you - and wow! We get to be friends for eternity!

Joy!
Kathy
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AnonymousOctober 21, 2011 at 11:39 PM
A friend... always there for you.
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PeggyOctober 29, 2011 at 3:13 PM
Blessings F-R-I-E-N-D,

my dearest Sharon...I waited on this one in hopes that I would complete the other 5 or so and save the BEST for last. I'm working backwards now from the most current back...I think I'm loosing track.

I thought this "Fan the flame" would be "what is a FRIEND?" and you changed it so my answer was to be:
S
H
A
R
O
N
...and that's without meeting you! There are some others online, that I would have to say the same, but in different ways. *(at this point I went back and cheated and read the others)(Someone (Sandi & 2nd by Betty)beat me to it and summed it up with YOU!)So I'm 3rding it!

And I wanted to come up with an acrostic for both, but my mind's a bit dull with all the meds and being out in the sun doing laundry...

1)What are the qualities that make a friend?
YOURS... is the simplest way to answer this. List your qualities, and how you have embraced me and that's the qualities I need in a friend.

Someone I can talk to...ok write to...
Honest with what they share
Available for whatever and whenever
REAL and reliable and responsible
Open with discretion,discernment,godly wisdom
Nuts... like the calendar I sent, humor & fun
Did you catch that???

2)How is life enhanced by having a friend?
I am saved from my loneliness... feeling isolated away from all that is familiar and having someone care, take interest, share interests, share Jesus and His Word (in English)
I needed someone close to my age so I knew, we had/are/or will experience(d)/(ing)similar phases in life. In general, being able to share
and sense that person touching you, in a concrete way(even via internet).

3) What does it mean to be a friend of God?
Knowing He cares and know the details of my life, and still loves or even likes me, and that I am getting to know Him intimately through His Word, prayer and time well spent! The worse part is not being able to really feel that human embrace or see His face as we talk... yet in some sweet moments, a sense washes over me like He just did hug me... I miss that concrete aspect in the spiritual and emotional parts of me... But He makes me feel complete! He accepts me as I am since He made me (He's stuck)! Not even my own ------ or ------- accept me as I am.

I love the responses above and if my brain and heart were functioning and connecting better as I type (skipping my right pointer finger)perhaps
I might have listed everyone of those qualities for YOU!

Forever
Remain
Intimate
Equals
Negotiable
Depth
Sincere

Without question ~ I remain your friend,
Peggy
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"So [I] have been greatly encouraged in the midst of [my] troubles and suffering, dear brothers and sisters, because you have remained strong in your faith. It gives [me] new life to know that you are standing firm in the Lord. How [I] thank God for you!" (1 Thessalonians 3:7-9)

Thanks for your comments - it is such a joy to be sharing my journey with friends like YOU!

(NOTE: Anonymous comments will be removed. Thank you for understanding.)

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MY WORD FOR 2016

GRATEFUL

Grateful: feeling or showing thanks to someone for some helpful act; appreciative of benefits received; warmly or deeply thankful; indebted; beholden.

Word origin: 1550's, "pleasing to the mind," also "full of gratitude," from obsolete adj. grate "agreeable, thankful," from Latin gratus "pleasing" – derived from the same word origin as the word "grace."

The trick to changing your behavior is to become more thankful.

The practice of gratitude involves a focus on the present moment, on appreciating your life as it is today and what has made it so.

Let us begin an eternal quest to express in new and creative ways our thanks to God.

So I'm breathing in Your grace,

And I'm breathing out Your praise.

Let our prayers be the overflow of a grateful heart to God.

Three steps in prayer:

PRAISE – praise, reverence, worship, adoration, and awe for who God is and what He does

ASK – honest, earnest, and intense requests

THANK YOU – always end with thanksgiving for everything

Pulpit commentary:

In everything give thanks.

In every circumstance – in joy and in sorrow; for everything – for prosperity and for adversity; in every place – in the house of God and on the bed of sickness.

Christians should not only be engaged in constant prayer, but in constant thanksgiving.

For this – this thankful spirit – is the will of God, His desire.

God by the gift of his Son has laid us under the obligation of perpetual thanksgiving. Our whole lives ought to be one continued thank-offering for all the blessings of redemption.

Gill's Exposition:

Thanks are to be given to him for all things…

For all temporal good things;

for our beings, the preservation of them;

for food and raiment, and all the mercies of life;

for the means of grace, the word and ordinances, and the ministers of the Gospel;

for spiritual blessings, for electing, redeeming, regenerating, adopting, pardoning, justifying, and persevering grace:

for a meetness for heaven, a right unto it, and a good hope of it;

and especially for Jesus Christ, for such a…Saviour, and advocate with the Father, as he is; and for life, peace, joy, comfort, righteousness, and salvation in him.

Thanks should be given to God in every circumstance of life; in adversity, as Job did; when not in so comfortable and agreeable a frame of soul as to be wished for…even under the temptations of Satan…since the grace of God is sufficient to bear up under them, and deliver out of them.

[Give thanks] in afflictions of every kind, since they are all for good – temporal, or spiritual, or eternal.

WHAT IS LOVE?

Love is when you are missing some of your teeth but you're not afraid to smile because you know your friends will still love you even though some of you is missing.

By Emma K. - Age 6

"Out of the mouth of babes..."

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.

Anonymous

When you are uncertain, it helps to have someone remind you what is true – someone who knows you well, who sees you, and keeps track of you – not just your body but your soul.

Emily Freeman

Sharon Sharing God

Friday, October 21, 2011

"FAN THE FLAME" FRIDAY - Friend

7 comments:

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HOW GREAT THOU ART

ALL FOR HIS GLORY

I'D RATHER HAVE JESUS

THE GLORIFIED ONE

SERVING THE MOST HIGH

HE IS ALWAYS THERE, AND EVER NEAR