“A friend loves at all times. And a brother is born for adversity.”
– Proverbs 17:17
Maybe one of the most famous, well-known Proverbs. Just think about friends in your life. Friends you might have now. Friends you might have had in the past. And the value of friends who love you and people who love you, who walk with you through adversity. This is a gift from God. And it’s a gift we need from God. We need people around us who love us, who help us walk through adversity. Not one of us was intended to walk through this life alone. We need friends like that around us.
We need people around us who love us and help us walk through adversity, and we need to do this for others.
Proverbs 17:17 Reminds Us of the Value of Good Friends
And we need to be friends like that. We don’t just need to read this verse and think about, “Well, who loves me like this?” We’ve gotta ask the question, “Well, who do I love like this?” Not just who walks with me through adversity, but who can I walk with through adversity. Who can I help in the middle of adversity?
I read this verse today and then went and spent time with one of my greatest friends in the world who has walked with me through major adversity. And this is the person who when my dad unexpectedly died of a heart attack, he drove me seven hours home to be with my family. Born for adversity. Loving at all times.
Proverbs 17:17 Prays for Friendship
So God, we pray first and foremost that you would help us to be these kind of friends. Lord, help us to love people around us in a way that blesses them in every circumstance. They walk especially through hard times, in the middle of adversity. We trust that we were born, at least in part, to help them walk through that kind of adversity. So make us these kind of friends, we pray. And God, we pray, for your provision of these kind of friends in our lives. I know that many who are listening to this right now have these kind of friends. There are just names popping into people’s minds.
This Verse Praises God for Good Gifts
We just praise you for these good gifts and the friends you’ve given us like this. At the same time, I imagine there’s some people who when they read this, hear this verse, think, “Ah, I wish I had a friend that was loving me in the middle of a difficult time, who was walking with me through adversity.” And so in those situations, God, we pray for your provision of this kind of friend.
Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for the way you provide for us, through friends around us. We see friends who love us at all times, who walk with us through adversity. And they are a good gift of your grace, a good gift from your hand for which we give you glory. And we pray that you would help us to be a reflection of your goodness, like this as friends in other people’s lives. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
