Deepening FriendshipsSample

Day 4: Our Longing for Friendship

Sherry has recounted two seasons of her own deepening friendships. As I read her stories, it makes me hungry to be similarly intentional with women in my life, both individually and in a group. But like me, you might be wondering, how does one even go about doing this?

Perhaps you have a handful of women in your life who come to mind to invite into a group like this. Or maybe you find yourself in a lonely place without access to women who would be up for going deeper with God and each other like you desire.

Either way, I encourage you to simply pray about this growing longing in your heart. God desires for us to pour out our hearts to him, even our longings for deepening friendships. Let’s be alert and watchful today (and in this season) to see who God brings to mind or who we might meet as we put ourselves in the way of women who could become our friends.

We are with and for you, praying for you as you consider all you’ve read and all you long for in friendships and in belonging. As you read through this prayer and the questions that follow, consider journaling what rises up in your heart.

A Prayer Expressing a Longing for Friendship

Father, Spirit, Jesus, Trinity God, the way you are together as One, is seamless and beautiful and eternal. Alluring. Complete in and of itself, yet you have extended this offer of friendship beyond yourself to us, who you fashioned to be displays of your splendor, to be included in this intimate fellowship and to bring your image to bear in community and friendship to this thirsty world around us. I long for a friendship that is not fickle and fading, but one that is born of you God, that will stand the test of time. A friendship that is redemptive in nature, nourishing and nurturing, a safe place of mutuality to speak of our struggles and our wounds, and to tend to each other. A sisterhood where iron sharpens iron, where we are present to one another, lift each other up, encourage one another to rise and move in union with you. A place where when we hurt one another, which will happen, we find courage through the power of your coming, Jesus, to be willing to walk with you over the course of time, to hope for and to see repentance, reconciliation, restoration, and resurrection happen in this life. These are the friendships I long for, the kind of redemptive community I desire, the Kingdom fellowship you lived and died for, Jesus.

You know my longings and my desire for this kind of intimacy. You call me your friend and I return to these words, even in the midst of the heartache I have experienced through friends and in community. I proclaim that I am a member of the body of Christ. I confess that there are times that I don’t know how to do this, that I have been let down and that I have let my friends down, and this has caused me to retreat into lonely self-protection. But my deepest longing is to be courageous enough to return, again and again, to the fellowship you have made possible, Jesus.

Holy Spirit, speak to me of who I am, how you love me and how you have created me to love others. I want to be like you, Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit, giving and receiving, fierce defenders of one another, of the Gospel, light shiners, loving and true, deeply planted in you and with one another.

I pray for an Elizabeth in my life like Mary had, and to be an Elizabeth to a woman in my life. I trust my heart, mind, soul, desires, and yearning to you, in Jesus’ mighty name, AMEN!

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

Father, what do you have to say to me about friendship and community? Where does my heart need healing here so that I can move toward the community you created me to experience?

Jesus, where might I need to offer repair to a friend?

Spirit, as I read this prayer, how are you inviting me to move toward you and others into the friendships and communities that you have for me?