THERE’S NO TRUE FRIENDSHIP WITHOUT TOUGH LOVE

Man having friends that stick closer than a brother is hard to find but when you find them their truly a blessing to your life. I’m not talking about the friends that only tell you what you want to hear because their afraid of how you would respond or their afraid you may un-friend them. I’m talking about the ones that will not only go the distance  but the ones that are not afraid to tell you when you’re in the wrong. We should value friends that tell us the hard stuff about ourselves and don’t tell us only what we want to hear. David was very grateful for Nathan. Nathan wasn’t afraid to call him out when he was wrong and because of that it allowed David to have a self-reflection of himself. He looked in the mirror at what he had done and that not only caused repentance but it changed his life. So if you have a friend that’s willing to cause you to take a look at yourself embrace their tough love because it may not only save your life, but bless your life. Samson would’ve benefited from having a friend like this. It may have changed the course of his life but not the purpose of his life.

2 Samuel 12:1-7
12 The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!

2 Samuel 12:9

⁹ Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

2 Samuel 12:13

¹³ Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Jesus is not only your savior but he’s also your friend so you’re never alone!!