The Importance of Friendships

[Darris McNeely] I was recently in a conversation with a friend of mine about another individual that we both know and a rough spot they were going through. And I said to my friend, "Don't they have any friends to help them through?" You know, we have to have friends in this life. We have to go through life...we can't really go through life by ourselves. Friends are very important that there are whole television shows about it, movies, buddy shows, all of this, but the reality is, it's true that we need those relationships and we need to cultivate them to get us through life and sometimes difficult situations.

There's a story in the Bible that points this out. It's in Daniel 2, and it's the famous story where the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, has this dream of an image that nobody can interpret, not as magicians, not as astrologers, and Daniel, who is in the king's palace, as a chief advisor at that point, realizes that if he plays his cards right, he can find the answer because what's happening is the king is lopping off all the heads of the wise men, because nobody can tell him the interpretation of his dream. So, Daniel doesn't wanna lose his head. In chapter 2, Daniel then does something interesting. It says that he went in and he asked for the king to give time, that he might find the interpretation, which was granted.

And then verse 17 of Daniel 2, Daniel then went to his house, and he made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, his friends, otherwise known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you know the story there. And he said, basically, to them, "Look, let's ask God for the mercies of heaven to be able to reveal this dream and understanding so that we can save our lives." That's what Daniel did. They were in a tough spot, and he had these three friends, the three amigos, and he went to them and he sorted it all out. They then went to God. But Daniel shared the problem, the situation with friends because he had those friends. We all need friends. That's what friends are for, as the song says. Well, they got the answer, and they saved their lives. There's several lessons from this whole story, but the most important one, I think, is to realize that we all need friends. We can't get through this by ourselves.

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