Anchors

 

Philemon 1:4-7

I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, ⁵ because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. ⁶ I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. ⁷ Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.

 

Sunday the pastor preached on "being the person God wants you to be" and spoke out of the book of Philemon.  One of the points was that as believers it is essential to have people in our lives that will tell us what we NEED to hear, not what we WANT to hear!  He referred to these people as anchors in our lives.  I am thankful that God has provided anchors in almost every stage of our lives  Some people have carried over from one "stage" to the next and I know that is such a blessing. I think on these people and realize how far and few between those types of relationships are and I PRAISE HIM!  I am almost certain that having people such as this is probably a rarity and most likely does not exist for even most believers. 

This brings me to a few different thoughts.  The first being that I should count my blessings and praise God for those that he has provided for us!  Even though we may not get to talk often I know they are there for us and will speak TRUTH to me above what I would WANT to hear!

It also reminds me not to give up in this current season of our lives.  Andrew and I have been going to a small group for several months and still have not reallly conected with any of the couples there like we would like to.  We were ready to quite going with the mindset that we (hopefully) don't have much longer here and we will continue to go to church but just not the small group.  That is, until we were convicted of this on Sunday and that we will NOT find those relationships if we don't go to places and communicate with like minded people! 

So, I know that if we are only here for another 6 months or so that we won't find BEST friends but we are prayerful that we can find people to be real with and speak truth with openly.  If not, we are thankful for those that God has given us that we can still rely on, no matter how far away.  I also think of my friend Lydia and am thankful for her example. She has taught me that if I want that conversation to occur, oftentimes I have to be the one to bring it up, to ask the ackward important questions to point our conversation to Christ!  I am thankful for that in her!