1. It costs personal convenience
This is when we must be willing to put our personal preferences aside and value others as more important than ourselves (Phil. 2:3). Maybe they need someone to vent to, or maybe they need a favor that we can’t refuse them. Friendships at times, can be an inconvenience.
2. It costs time.
Building a solid trust with a companion takes time. You can’t possibly expect to have a good relationship with a friend without putting in the time to get to know them
See Also: Pursuing Godly Peace Requires This Sacrifice
3. It costs intimacy.
Ask yourself what drew you to your friend. Was it their humor or cleverness? Friendship is designed for growth and this means that you each have to help each other identify your own flaws and keep sins in check. In order to do this, you need to know their heart and they need to know yours. Intimacy must be part of friendships.
4. It costs comfort.
What happens when being someone’s friend suddenly becomes an inconvenience? Well, the real friends that love and support you will stick by you no matter what, because they know you’ll do the same for them. Its much more than sitting around sipping lattes.
See Also: Discover Overflowing Joy in the Slow Ache of Waiting
5. It costs prayer.
Like a marriage or a relationship, friendships must have prayer. How can you not lift up your spiritual brother or sister through prayer?
6. It costs love.
People are not perfect, so no matter what ugliness we find in our friends we must continue to love. Sometimes unkindness and selfishness will emerge. That is when God’s advice takes into effect.
“As He loves us—He would have us love others. We say men are not worthy of such friendships. True, they are not. Neither are we worthy of Christ’s wondrous love for us. But Christ loves us—not according to our worthiness—but according to the riches of His own loving heart! So should it be with our giving of friendship—not as the person deserves—but after the measure of our own character.”
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
John 15:13
