TREASURES OF THE BIBLE, Week April 4-10, 2022, “How to be a good friend”, Prepared Speech.

TREASURES OF THE BIBLE, April 4-10, 2022, “How to Be a Good Friend,” Prepared Speech.

“How to be a good friend” (10 min.)

As the saying goes "Who has a friend has a treasure" and good to think about our friends and how much does our friends contribute to our lives? Well, the truth is that we realize that this is indeed the case, right? Having good friends is something very important that enriches our lives, as another popular saying says "Friends double the joys and divide the sorrows in half", and we see that this is also a reflection in the word of God, the word of God that precisely because it comes from our creator reflects a really impressive knowledge of human nature, and also tells us about friendship and gives us very good advice to do and to have good friends.

Now, the Bible not only talks about friendship and gives good advice about it, it also tells us about real examples, men and women who had good friendships with each other and also through these examples we can learn a lot. In this week's Bible reading we find an outstanding example of friendship. The example of David and Jonathan and it is true that between them there was not only a great age difference with being approximately 30 years older than David and that David would also be the future of the call to be chosen by Jehovah future King of Israel and Jonathan son of the current king, with which any of these circumstances could exist a barrier in their friendship.

However, neither of these two things prevented them from being good friends, among other things and mainly because their friendship was based on the best foundation "Love for Jehovah" and that was shown not only when things were going well, right? that's the easy thing, but especially when they were going through problems or difficulties in life. It is said that true friends are those who come to share our happiness but nevertheless come to our misfortunes without being called, and that was what Jonathan was to David. Yes, David was a man who went through many difficult and complicated situations.

In this week's Bible reading we find that David was threatened, by whom? Well, precisely because of the father of his best friend, King Saul wanted to kill him and where was Jonathan? Well, he was not with his father but with David, a loyal man, a man who had the blessing of Jehovah God And how did Jonathan demonstrate in these circumstances that he was a good friend? Well, we will see three brief stories from the Bible and from each one of them we will draw a lesson for how our theme says, "How to be good friends."

LET'S READ: 1 Samuel 20:1,2.

1 David then fled from Nayot de Ramah. He went to Jonathan and asked him, “What have I done? What is my crime? What sin have I committed against your father that he wants to take my life? 2 Jonathan replied, “You are not going to die! Not even thinking about it! Look, my father is not going to do anything without telling me first, whatever it is. Why would he hide this matter from me? No, that's not going to happen." 

The first lesson for us, good friends are comforted and encouraged when they are in trouble and this is something that Jehovah's people have demonstrated in many ways. In a practical way, for example when a disaster has occurred, whether natural or caused by man, our brothers have been there financially supporting us by opening their houses to receive their friends, but we do not have to wait for a disaster to show that we are good friends. 

What if a brother of the congregation or is going through a bad time, is discouraged going through a bad patch in his life?, maybe a problem, we can do as Jonatan have a word of encouragement a word of comfort. 

And if perhaps it happens to many of us, that we are the ones who do not know what to say in those moments, well simply the fact that we are there that will already mean a lot for that person to be by his side listening to him share a text from the bible so It may not be encouraging for us, without a doubt it will do a lot for our friend.

In the illustration that we have in the Activity Guide, What do we see here? Well, not only do we see the anguish and sadness on the face of the brother on the right, right, but we also see the attention with which the marriage listens to him the compassion with which they look at him his desire to encourage to support reflected in that hand resting on his brother's back, truly an illustration that without a word tells us a lot. 

It tells us the message that they are transmitting, do not worry, we love you, we are here, we are by your side to help you, just as the proverb 17:17 says, a true friend loves at all times and is a brother in times of anguish, that it was what Jonathan was to David and that is what all of us can be very well because it is the first lesson. 

LET'S READ: 1 Samuel 20:12,13.

12 And Jonathan said to David: “I call Jehovah, the God of Israel, a witness that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, about this time, I will try to find out what my father thinks. If I see that his attitude towards you is good, I will send someone to tell you. 13 May the Lord punish me severely if I learn that my father wants to harm you and do not tell you to be safe. May Jehovah be with you as he was with my father.

Yes, Jonatan promised him that he would find out how things were and if the situation was good, he would tell him so that he would be calm, but if it was bad and his father wanted to hurt him, he would also warn him so that he could put himself at ease. except. The lesson for us, good friends are warned when there is danger, and this of course has a very good application in the physical field. It is not true that if we saw that an object or something was going to fall on a friend of ours, immediately We noticed the danger, right?

But what if the danger were of a spiritual nature? Would we also do the same? If we saw that our friend began to proceed in a bad way in his life, that we saw that he was going to deviate from the path of Jehovah, would we have the courage to Let him know or maybe we would remain silent, because of that mistaken, that false sense of loyalty? Or maybe we think that if we warn of the danger we might lose him as a friend, or maybe we won't tell him for fear of making him angry with us. If we are true friends, we would obviously warn not only of a physical danger, but also of a spiritual danger in the case of our friends, because this will be the second lesson. 

LET'S READ: 1 Samuel 20:30,32.

30 Then Saul was furious with Jonathan and said to him: “Son of a rebel! Do you think I don't know you're on the side of the son of Jesse? You are a disgrace to yourself and your mother! 31 As long as the son of Jesse lives here on earth, you and your kingdom will not be safe. So send someone to find him, because he has to die”. 32 But Jonathan answered his father Saul, “Why must he die? What has he done?

Well, a very interesting story, right? We see how Saul was attacking not only his son, but also David. Did Jonathan remain silent? Of course not, he spoke in defense of him, he went out to defend him, he said: because he has to die, which is what they have done. 

Well the third lesson for us, good friends really defend each other when someone tells lies about them, so how do we react if we hear something negative from a friend of ours? If perhaps we hear that someone is gossiping about him or something that is not true, we would believe it without further ado, we would find ourselves true so as not to look bad before the person who is saying that or rather, like Jonathan, we would really come out in defense of our friend well obviously again true is what we would be expected to do as friends. 

In conclusion, brothers, today we have seen three things that good friends do: they console and encourage each other when they have problems, they warn each other when there is danger and they really defend each other, it is true that sometimes doing these things requires effort, but effort is worth it pity in fact that is why Jehovah through his organization has sent us a message that is to cultivate strong friendships before the end comes, that is why if we apply the advice that we have seen today we will be good friends and we will also have good friends, because if we are loyal to Jehovah we can enjoy them now and also forever.