What is A TRUE Friend?

***I have thinking for the past few weeks about what I think a true friend is. While doing some research, I came across a few writings by other people that I posted below. It is long, but it is worth the read. I took bits and pieces of things I liked and they are below...***

"Can two walk together, except they be agreed" (Amos 3:3).

Friends are of like mind. The truth that comes from all of this is that friendship is that relationship that is entered into by individuals and it is only as good or as close as those individuals choose to make it. Some one has said that if you can count your true friends on the fingers of one hand, you are blessed. A friend is one whom you can be yourself with and never fear that they will judge you. A friend is someone that you can confide in with complete trust. A friend is someone you respect and that respects you, not based upon worthiness but based upon a likeness of mind.

In order have a friend one must be a friend. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful" (Proverbs 27:6).

For those of you who have really entered into a true Spirit-filled, full surrendered walk with the Lord where He is now leading and directing your life in the direction that He wants it to go in - one of the first things that you will find happening is that God will start to prune out the people that He does not want in your life and start to bring in the people that He does want in your life.
The Bible tells us to choose our friends very carefully in this life.

He who walks with wise people will become wise himself, but that he who keeps company with fools will he himself be destroyed. The Bible tells us that we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, that we are to stay away from people who cause divisions and offenses, and to withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly.

This does not mean that we cannot work with the lost, the downtrodden and the people who need to find God and His message of eternal salvation. When Jesus came to our earth in the flesh, He always went after the sinners and the outcasts. But when Jesus went after these sinners, it was always for the express purpose of getting them saved and cleaned up.

God will be deciding who your true friends are going to be in this life and who will not.
The main reason God will be helping you to choose who your true friends are going to be in this life is because His ultimate and highest aim for you is to transform and sanctify you. In other words - He wants you to spiritually grow and mature in your walk with Him.

The main reason that God will start to take out the friends in your life that He does not want you to have is because some of these people may be negative influences in your life. They may not be open to growing and maturing in the Lord like you will be, and all they will do is try and hold you back when you start your own spiritual journey and growth in the Lord. They will start criticizing and making fun of you and all they will end up doing is stunting your growth in the Lord.

God will not be putting up with this, and He will thus be taking all of these bad influences out of your life very early on once you enter into this full surrendered walk with Him. For those of you who are married and have children - it is the same thing when you do not want your children hanging out with other children who you know would be a bad and negative influence on your child.

You know that if your children start hanging out with the wrong type of crowd, they can become very easily corrupted in a very short period of time. As a result, you will become very protective on who your children will be choosing to be their friends once they become old enough to start choosing who their friends are going to be.

If you will allow God to prune out the people that He does not want you to have in your life - then what He will start to do is to bring in the people that He will want to have in your life. I call these types of friends "God-friends." These people will be other godly, Spirit-filled Christians who are truly walking in good stead with the Lord and they will now be the people that He will want you to share your walk with!

What I have learned is that it is not the quantity or amount of friends that comes in - it is the quality. You are much better off having just one or two good, solid quality friends as versus 10 or 15 that are not as good quality friends as the one or two may be.

Sadly, what you will find out very early on, is just because someone may be a saved and born again Christian does not mean this person has their act together in the Lord. Some people have become too judgmental and too critical in their walks with the Lord. Some have become too arrogant and pompous, thinking that they have all the answers to everything. They will tend to look down on anyone else who is not operating at the knowledge levels they are operating at.
Some have become so flakey in their walks with the Lord, that they have lost touch with reality and you won't be able to connect with any of them. God knows best as to who will be best suited for you at your current level of spiritual development with Him - so let Him guide you to the ones that He will want you to connect with.

The other thing that could occur besides God matching you up with total strangers is that He may move on someone else you know, but that you are not particular good friends with. That person then gets saved and plugged in, and then he or she finds out that you too are saved and plugged in - and now a good God-friendship can start to build up as you now have something in common with one another to start to build a good solid friendship with.

***So, to sum this all up, be thankful for your TRUE friends that you have. Because, TRUE friends are PRICELESS!***