One step to deepening friendships …

Friends can sometimes be ornery with one another. A story that captures that truth is one about a young man in Bible college who fell asleep during class. As he was sleeping, a friend of the young man suddenly shook him and earnestly whispered, “Hey, he just asked you to pray!” The sleeping man, thinking he had just been called on to pray, jumped to his feet and began his prayer while still partly asleep, interrupting the teacher’s lesson. The student finished his prayer and sat down. The teacher, unflustered, thanked the student and continued with the lesson.

It’s good to encourage our friends to pray. It’s a wonderful experience to be able to pray for our friends. But have you taken time to pray with your friends?

We talk over coffee, play together, go places together, do things together, but often missing in the rich fellowship of friendship is pausing to share the experience of praying together.

If you would like to take your friendships to an even deeper level, try making praying together a consistent part of your time with your friends. It can create a new level of intimacy with someone when you include them in your conversations with God, and it’s a great way of making (or keeping) God in the center of friendships.

Scotty