A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
– Proverbs 17:17
What a verse! What a picture of what we all need in our lives. We need friends who love us at all times. Oh, I’m so thankful just reading this verse, for people who have loved me at all times. In low moments. They’re loving me in high moments. They’re loving me, praying for me, encouraging me, and helping me at all times.
Proverbs 17:17 teaches the beauty of unconditional friendship.
A friend loves like that. Not just here or there, not just when it’s beneficial for them. A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. What a picture of… Just think about brothers and sisters in Christ in my life who have been such a rock for me in the middle of adversity. Who have been encouragement to me. Who’ve held me up. Their friendship in my life, a gift for the dark times in my life.
We all need friends like this… To pray for friends like this. And we need to pray that God would help us be these kinds of friends. Are you a friend who loves at all times? And are you a rock, an encouragement, a help for others when they face adversity? God, we praise you from the outset for being this for us. The fact that you are the capital “r” Rock who loves us at all times. Even Jesus, to think about your language in John 15, that you call us friends.
We praise you for loving us at our lowest moments and our highest moments. For loving us at every moment, at all times. And for your faithful help through adversity. For your strength, for your joy, for your peace, for all the ways you serve us, and to help us endure. We praise you as our friend. And God, we pray that you would help us to reflect your love in this way for others.
Proverbs 17:17 reminds us of our need for Christ-centered community.
God, help us to be these kinds of friends who love at all times, as a picture of your love for your people at all times. Help us, especially when we think about anybody around us right now who’s walking through adversity. God, we pray that you would use us for your appointed purpose in their lives, to be an encouragement to them, to help them in any way we can as a picture of your help for them.
And God, we confess our need for friends like this in our lives. So we pray that you would provide friends like this for us. And if we don’t have people we’re leaning on to look to in this way. In a Proverbs 17:17 way. God help us to pursue, initiate relationships with others so that we are surrounded. Like Proverbs 17:17 describes.. By people who love us at all times and walk with us through adversity. Ultimately in ways that draw us closer to you as our capital “f” Friend.
And God, in this, we pray for people who don’t know you as Friend. Who don’t know you, Jesus, as Savior, Lord, God, and Friend. God, we pray you’d help us to lead others to friendship with you around us, and God, around the world.
Prayer for the Messiria Baggara People
We pray specifically today for the Messiria Baggara people of Sudan. For 700,000 of them who are walking through such hard days, low days in Sudan, without the good news of your love for them. In Jesus.
God, we pray, we plead for the spread of your grace, your love in Jesus. That they might become friends. Part of your family, you as Father. God, we pray for the Messiria Baggara people. Please, God, please bring their salvation about that they might know you as their eternal Father and Friend. We pray all this according to your Word in Proverbs 17:17. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
