Girlfriends and God – both are biblical relationships necessary in the life of a Christian woman, Beth Moore told 7,000-plus Living Proof Live attendees Feb. 16-17 in Detroit.
Moore cited five characteristics of biblically sound friendships:
1) The truest friendships are distinctive from any other relationship.
“A close friend should be someone you feel free to love and with whom you have common interests,” Moore said, suggesting, “You should only have as many close friends as you have fingers on one hand.”
2) The truest friendships take place face to face.
“Overwhelmingly, most communication is nonverbal,” Moore explained. “If all I am doing is e-mailing friends, then we are missing something. Some amount of proximity is necessary in friendships.”
3) Close friendships attach to the soul.
Referencing Deuteronomy 13:6, Moore equated close friends to being “soul friends,” noting, “You decide what is planted in your life and what is not. Biblical friends are meant to sharpen one another. Unhealthy friends make you spiritually dull.”
Moore explained that healthy relationships are knitted together, but not entangled. She defined entanglements as “co-dependent messes, with jealousies and neediness that can never be met by another person.”
4) True friendships endure.
Reading Proverbs 17:17, she challenged her audience to love when the other person is lovable and when they are not.
“The highest kind of love is not a feeling, but a willing. Some days it is easy to love them, sometimes you want to kill them,” Moore said. “But you have to will [love] until you feel it.”
5) The truest friendships are trustworthy, even with a wound.
From Proverbs 27:5-6, Moore read, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.”
“Godly people are not deceitful people,” Moore said. “If you have a friend whose words could be trusted and they wounded you, ask what was their motive. Even if they weren’t right about what they said, was their heart well-meaning?”
A Living Proof Live event is planned for April 13-14 at the Colonial Center in Columbia.