When life feels heavy, she’s reminded that God often sends grace through a trusted friend. Discover how Christ-centered friendships steady the soul, share burdens, and anchor hearts in every season.
This article originally appeared in the Just Between Us Weekly Digital Magazine.
The Grace of Spiritual Friendship
Companions for the Journey Who Keep Our Hearts Anchored in Christ
by Jane Rubietta
The phone rang in the middle of Luann’s busy day. “Luann,” her friend whispered, tears tightening her voice, “I don’t know what to do about my son. He is using drugs.”
Luann delayed her next appointment and listened. She asked wise questions. She shared ideas when appropriate. And she prayed over the phone. Luann’s total availability and her own grief as she wept with her friend gave hope and direction—and much needed companionship in the often overwhelming wasteland of transition.
There is no greater privilege than being present to another person in pain. No greater gift than to know we do not traverse the desert alone. No greater joy than holding another in time of crisis, carrying that person to the Father and, with love, transferring our loved one to him. How God longs to love us through relationships with others.
When God summoned Moses back from his forty-year escape tending sheep, Moses’ final protest was, “Look, God, I know all about you, but I can’t talk well so just send someone else, OK?”
God’s anger showed up then: “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you” (Exo. 4:14). Aaron found Moses and approached him. And even though he had plenty of reasons to be furious with Moses for disappearing and abandoning his strategic position within the king’s empire, Aaron’s “heart was glad” when he saw Moses.
And from two estranged brothers raised in entirely different households, God created a wilderness team that would endure forty years. Rarely can we survive the wilderness alone, though that is our proclivity.
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