True Friendship ( Lessons From David and Jonathan)

A true friend will rejoice and celebrate your victory with you. They won’t look down on your strengths and abilities God has placed within you. When you have achieved success in any area of your life they will be happy for you. They will tell you what it is, when you have done well ” they will say well done. They won’t be jealous of you, they are happy to see you as a friend doing well around them.
Jonathan gave His armor, robe, sword, bow and belt to David after wining the battle against Goliath. He celebrated David as a warrior. Even though Jonathan Himself couldnt face Goliath , He was not jealous when David won.
True friends will not envy in the area which you succeeded but they couldn’t. They will still celebrate you. Because they understand that God has a purpose and plan for everyone

A true friend delights in you. They like you for who you are. Not because of what you have. Not when you are rich or when life is good. But when life gets tough their friendship with you doesn’t change. They don’t all of a sudden appear when life is going well and disappear when life gets tough. They don’t like you because others like you or not. Others opinion doesn’t change their opinion about you. “In 1 Samuel 19:1 the Bible says Jonathan delighted greatly in David.” He liked Him for who He was. Whether His father Saul liked David or not did not change Him.

A true friend will speak well of You. They won’t tell you all the lovely things and go and tell people bad things about you. They won’t go and tell your business to the world.They have a heart to see you do well.
In 1 samuel 19:4 the Bible says
Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul. ” He said ” Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, because He has not sinned against you, and because His works have been very good towards you.

A true friend is not selfish. They want You to have other friends to. They don’t want you for themselves. Because they care about you, even if it means you have to move away from them because of an issue they are happy for you. And will remain your friend.
Jonathan cared more about David’s safety than David’s company. Telling David the truth meant that David will have to move away from Him. But Jonathan wasn’t selfish and told David the truth so He will be safe.
During my time of writing this message. I asked myself. Am I a true friend? Do I tick all this criteria. The truth is I don’t tick all this criteria. And Ive learnt that the more I spend time in prayer and ask God to show me and mould me, the more I learn to love. And seeking God has definitely made changes in valuing friendships and treating others how i would like to be treated. The truth is Jonathan and Davids friendship was a covenant. The bible says the Soul of Jonathan was knit with David ” and Jonathan Loved Him as His own soul.

Their friendship was built by God. Only God can help us love with a pure heart and enable friendship to function like David and Jonathan’s friendship. To be honest with you as I was also writing the only friend that came in my mind is Jesus. Only He could fit all the criteria for me that was listed.
But God’s word shows us we can have and also be the earthly friends like Jonathan and David. Jesus is our ultimate friend, but God uses people in our life’s to help us through our journey on earth.