Daily Devotionals

Devotional: September 16th

For Reading and Meditation:
     Ecclesiastes 4:7-12

Some people are lonely because of the oppression of others; some because their own competitiveness separates them from friends. In today's passage, however, we come face to face with a man who was lonely because he had no family connections. How does he handle it? He throws himself into an endless round of activity and buries himself in work. But money and possessions are not much good when you have no one to share them with. Life lived on this level, says Solomon, is also meaningless. He then makes a statement which is often misunderstood: "Two are better than one ... If one falls down, his friend can help him up ... if two lie down together, they will keep warm" (vv. 9-11). Note the emphasis in these sayings is on two people. But at the end of the passage Solomon says something very strange: "A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." The point is: when you are in a close relationship with someone you love and who loves you, you have a third quality - a strength and power which unfolds from out of the relationship. In the fusion of friendship, you discover something you could never discover - except in a relationship. It is your strength, plus your friend's strength, producing an even greater strength. Solomon's point, of course, in saying all this is that if you want to make it through days of disillusionment, the secret is friendship. There is no comfort quite like a friend when you are forced to live on "the ragged edge of time."

Father, I see that I am built for relationships, not only with You, but with others also. And in a relationship lies a power that is greater than the sum of its two parts. May I discover more of this. In Christ's Name I ask it. Amen.

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