Two weeks ago we kicked off a brand new solo podcast series based on a book I co-authored with my dear friend, Amber Durgan, entitled “Friendship Matters: Cultivating Meaningful Connections in an Isolated World”. In that first episode we covered the introduction and first chapter of the book, while this week we’re zeroing in on chapter 2. This chapter is all about friendships of the Bible, and our focus today will be on friendships of the Old Testament and what we can learn from them. For a conversation all about friendships of the New Testament, head on over to Amber’s podcast episode tomorrow!
What I Chat about in Today’s Episode:
~6 different friendships of the Old Testament:
- Ruth and Naomi
- David and Jonathan
- Elijah and Elisha
- Esther and Mordecai
- Job and his friends
- Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
~Characteristics of life-giving friendships that we see in their friendships; what we can learn from these friends in the Bible
~The power and beauty of multi-generational friendships
~Close friendship as something to be prioritized and enjoyed by men, as well
~Friendship as being something that spurs you on to greatness rathe than holding you back out of jealousy or fear
~Having a commitment to friendship
~Sacrificial friendships
~The what to do (And what not to do!) that we learn from Job’s friends
~The impact friendship can have on seeing people come to Christ
~And more!
Resources Mentioned
Offer for a free audiobook and 30 day trial membership from Audible: www.audibletrial.com/HomeandHearth
Previous Solo Podcast Episodes
Previous “Friendship Matters” Episode
QUOTES TO REMEMBER:
“When it comes to friendships, God has not left us in a quandary wondering what godly friendships look like. Throughout His Word, He has provided for us pictures of wonderful, life-giving, edifying friendships as well as debilitating, discouraging, and harmful ones. As we begin to understand the importance of friendship, grasp God’s design for it, and quickly turn to pursuing said friendships, we first need to obtain a clear understanding of the kind of friendships we need to look for and pursue – and which ones we need to avoid.”
“Naomi and Ruth’s relationship is one born out of great loss, pain, and hardship. This should give us hope and also point us to one of the purposes of friendship we touched in in chapter 1: the reality that our lives do not need to be going along swimmingly in order for us to enjoy the beauty of friendship, for one of the primary purposes of friendship is to provide us with someone who will pick us back up when we fall into a hard season.”
“A friendship as God designed it is one in which faithfulness, trust, and loyalty abound and where gossip, backbiting, and a lack of trust have no place.”
“Through Naomi’s love, example, and friendship, Ruth was inspired to leave the false gods of Moab behind and instead commit allegiance to the God of Israel.”
“An aspect of God-designed friendship that is often forgotten in our modern culture is our purposing to work together to advance the kingdom of God. Friendship isn’t all about coffee shop dates and shopping trips. There’s nothing wrong with those things, and I certainly enjoy them myself, but there is a deeper purpose behind God’s creating friendship than just fun outings.”
“Mordecai is so clearly a strength and bolstering influence to Esther. He is not lackadaisical, nor does he skimp on his positive influence. He speaks life into Esther and her life’s work.”
“Mordecai is neither jealous of nor threatened by Esther’s position and level of influence. He doesn’t clamor after platform for himself or grow bitter because he is not the one God is using as the earthly hero of the story. Instead, he sees what God has raised up and called Esther to do, and he simply delights in being the cheering section and inspiring support that she needs to strengthen her for the task at hand.”
“Job’s friends actually do do something right . They do not try to rush in with nice platitudes, quick fixes, or assurances that it will all work out and be worth it in the end. Instead, they simply sit down with him in his grief; they don’t even try to speak. They offer what some have beautifully referred to as the ‘ministry of presence’.”
“After doing what was right, unfortunately, Job’s friends later do something that isn’t right. They wrongly blame him for the trials that have entered his life. From this we need to learn that we must be so extremely careful with our theology and what kind of truths or untruths we are speaking over our friends.”
WHERE YOU CAN FIND REBEKAH ONLINE:
Websites – Hargraves Home and Hearth
Instagram –@rebekahhargraves
Facebook – Hargraves Home and Hearth
Twitter – @hhomeandhearth
Podcast – Home and Hearth Podcast
To Leave a Rating and Review on iTunes Have you been encouraged or inspired by today’s episode? If so, could I ask a little favor? If you could leave the podcast a rating and review in iTunes, that would be amazing! The more ratings and reviews a podcast receives, the more iTunes shows that podcast to other folks searching for shows to listen to, so by leaving me a rating and review, you truly are partnering with me in this podcast ministry to encourage and help as many women as we possibly can. Thank you so much for taking the time to do that! Here’s how: If you’re on your computer:
- Access iTunes on your desktop and type Home and Hearth in the search box on the upper right hand corner.
- Click on the podcast photo when it comes up
- Click on “Ratings and Reviews” beneath the podcast title
- Under “Customer Reviews”, click on “Write a Review”
- Click on how many stars you want to rate the podcast and then write out your review and click submit
- You’re done! Thank you so much!!
If you’re on your phone:
- Open the podcasts app
- Click the search button on the bottom righthand corner (the magnifying glass) and type in Home and Hearth in the search box that will appear at the top of your screen
- Click on the podcast photo when it pops up
- Click on the reviews button near the top middle of the screen
- Scroll down a bit, if needed, until you see “Write a Review” and click on that
- Click on how many starts your want to rate the podcast, write out your review, and click “send” when finished
- You’re done! Thank you so much!!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:22 — 47.2MB) | Embed
