A week ago, I blogged about how important friends are to our well-being. Then, after being in a room of people that I didn\u2019t know and feeling rather lonely amidst those who knew each other and were carrying on conversation and laughing, I gave that blog a second thought. Now I realize there may be those that my blog struck a less-than-harmonious chord. I thought through my blissful expression of friendships and how grateful I was for so many in my life, but I started thinking about those who may be wrought with loneliness, over and over again and may be crying out to God asking, \u201cWhere are my deep friendships?\u201d Mother Teresa said, \u201cThe most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.\u201d I felt that in that room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a perfect world, my idea of a deep friendship is composed of two people who love each other so deeply that it\u2019s a bit overwhelming. If we\u2019re discouraged, our friend is there to listen and encourage us. If we\u2019re excited, she\u2019s the one throwing a party. If we\u2019re frustrated, he\u2019s the one pulling us out of it and helping us change our attitude to joy. They ask all the right questions at all the right times and are 100% invested in the story God is writing through our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Basically, this perfect friend is birthed straight out of 1 Peter 4:8 which says, \u201cAbove all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.\u201d Perhaps you read those words and discontent overshadows you. \u201cWhere are those friends?\u201d As many friends we have or as few \u2013 those multitude-of-sins covering friends, just may be hard to come by \u2013 even the “bestest” of best friends may have difficulty with that much love. But here\u2019s what I know with all certainty \u2013 there is that kind of friend and He is found here in Psalm 62:1-2. It says: \u201cMy soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.\u201d Go ahead. Breathe those words in. God\u2019s answer to our prayers comes to you and me saying\u2026.\u201cI am the only One Who can love you like that; I am the only One Who can perfectly meet your longings.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can\u2019t deny that our Heavenly Father is the friend who exceeds expectations. When we are discouraged, He\u2019s there to comfort us. When we are excited, He rejoices alongside us. When we\u2019re frustrated, He reminds us to choose His great joy. He doesn\u2019t have to ask the right questions at the right times because He knows our heart \u2013 He knit us together in our mother\u2019s womb and is 100% invested in who we are. Our Father is the only One Who is fully capable of living out 1 Peter 4:8. He loves us deeply, because His love covers all of our sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We learn that our soul truly finds rest in Him alone. And as soon as we get that, the weight will fall off our friendships. Released from the bondage of our expectations, everyone around us becomes beautiful and they have the potential to be our friend without expectations. We don\u2019t have to have deep relationships. Of course we want to love and be loved, but no matter what our friendships look like, our deepest longings will never go unmet; God has already filled those shoes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A week ago, I blogged about how important friends are to our well-being. Then, after being in a room of people that I didn\u2019t know and feeling rather lonely amidst those who knew each other and were carrying on conversation and laughing, I gave that blog a second thought. Now I realize there may be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15162,15164,15161,15163],"tags":[15160,1210,15155,15153,2148,1085,15159,65,749,2597,3962,2049,15158,15154,15156,2152,15157],"class_list":["post-11172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1-peter-48","category-gods-love-4","category-loneliness","category-love-deeply","tag-best-friend-ever","tag-blog","tag-deep-friendship","tag-filled-shoes","tag-fortress","tag-friend","tag-friendships","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-loneliness","tag-lonely","tag-mother-teresa","tag-never-shaken","tag-psalm-621-2","tag-rest-in-god","tag-rock","tag-salvation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11174,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11172\/revisions\/11174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}