#028 How to Develop Lasting Friendships - 86 Seconds Video Devotional - Gary Wilkerson

#GaryWilkerson #86Seconds #WorldChallengeInc

We've been talking about friends the last couple times we've met together. I want to talk about it one more time. If you remember, we talked about listing of five closest friends that you have as quick as you can. If over the last few episodes you've not been able to really think through that, I hope you're beginning to think about that and set that as a priority in your life. You'll never build friendships that are lasting and valuable, unless you've set it as a high priority in your life. I think besides your faith, your family, friendship now comes number three as a list even above your finances and above everything else because if you don't have friends, other things in your life will never be healthy as well.

If you started to identify those five friends or if you say I only have one, I only have two, you're saying, “Gary, what can I do to help develop those friendships?” Well, I've already mentioned one of them is, be intentional about it. Look for people in your life that you'd say maybe they're not on my list of five closest friends but they're acquaintances. They are somebody that I'm working with or somebody in my neighborhood or somebody that I go to church with.

Then number two, cultivate that. Take some time, invite them over for dinner at your house. Invite them to lunch. Ask them to go for a walk during a break if they're a friend at work. Sit with the same people at church time and time again. Cultivate that.

Then number three is, nurture it. Once it's cultivated, all of a sudden, you're spending time together, but you have to nurture what type of friendships you're having. If they're just superficial. If they're just talking about a book you read or something like that. Without going into the issues of your heart, you'll never develop that real close intimacy and that's what true friends are. They're intimate with you.