Deepening FriendshipsSample

Day 2: First Taste of Sisterhood

One of the words for “know” in the Bible is the Hebrew word “yada”. It means to know through experience, to know deeply, intimately. God made us for a yada knowledge of him and of each other. How often do we live from our heads and not from the experiences of our hearts and senses? What would it look like in your life to deeply encounter God and his love of you in your heart and your body and your mind? How would this yada with God flow into your relationships?

Friendship is not the goal- friendship, sisterhood, and ministry are the fruit of yada- our intimacy with God.

Sherry’s Story:

When I think back to my first taste of sisterhood, the three of us were an unlikely group of friends--all firefighter’s wives, in a department where it seemed more men had affairs than not. It started when Beth and I were invited by Robin D, (not our Robin at Zoweh) into a journey together through The Purpose Driven Life. As we met each week starting in May 2005, I had no idea how much my life would depend on these two women. I was just beginning my walk with Jesus. As each of our lives and marriages imploded, we held each other’s hearts and stories, and sometimes just held each other as we cried. We prayed fiercely for each other, taking Jesus at His word.

In particular, Robin was incredibly fierce, inviting me to draw my life and breath and way from Jesus, as I moved with God through finding out about my husband’s affair, the following months of heartache and healing, and the death of that marriage. Robin both fought for my heart and cared well for my heart, asking disrupting questions, like “what if you DO divorce him?”

I was awakened to my heart’s need for friends, for dear sisters, for the importance of fighting for the hearts of others. Robin and Beth knew my story, saw my heart, and as I was fully known and seen, there was no room for shame. In that season, Jesus and Robin taught me to fight for my heart, for her and Beth’s hearts, as well as my husband’s heart.

I got my first taste of sisterhood as these two women helped me stand up, reminded me who I was, named my True Self, inviting me to live deeply rooted in God; seen, known, and loved by friends, instead of bearing the weight of my life’s situations alone while maintaining a facade.

What might it be like for YOU to experientially know and be known by a handful of dear friends?

As you ponder all this with God today, consider asking Him:

Father, as I sit with you, please reveal to me in what ways MY heart needs to be fought for. Who in my story, what friend of mine, could I offer my strength and courage to right now?

Jesus, how does Sherry’s story relate to my own? What do you want me to consider and explore?

Spirit, would you show me what you long for in me knowing you and being known, like the Hebrew word “Yada”?