Friends By Design

Rene & Theresa search God’s Word to answer some questions about jealousy, what the fruit of jealousy is and how to keep from becoming jealous in our friendships. Join the conversation as they discover three ways the Bible instructs us to stay free from jealousy: 1) Guard your heart and mind, 2) Pray for our secret-selfish sin to be uncovered, and 3) Love has got to be our hearts' motive in our relationship with one another.

Rene & Theresa are excited to hit Episode #10 with you, knowing that it’s been a growing and stretching experience for each of them in different ways, and they are honored for you to stretch and grow with them. Today, they dig into the topics of “repentance” and “forgiveness” in friendship. Is repentance really about condemnation or is it really about love? And what does that look like in friendship? True repentance is motivated by love, and forgiveness is a powerful tool that frees our heart.

Rene opens up and shares her experiences of asking for forgiveness from past friends, and what it looked like to walk out forgiveness and sometimes restoration of a friendship.

Fear, Past Experiences, Drama, Expectations, Heart Motives, Self-Preservation?

The Bible gives us instruction to have conversations in love. AND Jesus demonstrated in His life and ministries with His most intimate friends how to engage with one another, even the hard conversations. As we run the race toward Jesus in our Kingdom Friendships, we can live together encouraging one another to be in alignment with God, pointing one another and our friendship back to Jesus with a right heart motive, always evaluating our motives, attitudes, and mindsets in it all.

In Episode 8, Theresa and Rene share two testimonies of how Episodes 5 and 6 impacted the lives of their listeners. While sharing these testimonies, the Lord leads them into encouraging others to share anything that has touched their hearts as well. Both Theresa and Rene speak from personal experiences in their lives that had molded their identity for many years and that later the Lord revealed to them how to heal and step into their true identities of who God created them to be. Through this episode they want people to know someone in the world needs who you are, each person is created with purpose, and the Lord is faithful to lead us out of bondage and into freedom to be who He calls us to be.

There’s a lie in isolation, and there is an enemy behind it. The Bible instructs us how to break the habits and thoughts that create isolation. It’s the simple gospel. It’s the renewing of our minds. We’ve all experienced over the past two years, some form of isolation, whether it was mandated or a choice to not gather, but we were created to be in relationships, and instructed to not neglect gathering. Are we making it sound easier than it is? Nope. It's not always easy to even recognize that we are operating in it. It's why seeking God, His Kingdom and asking Holy Spirit for His help is where we start in recognizing it and having victory over it for our lives. It is a choice of turning away from things that mentally take us into a place of isolation, and turning towards the things outlined in Philippians 4.

We pray that our conversation on this topic moves you to a place to ask God if there are areas in your life where you might be isolated, and then seek the truth of God’s Word and His power to move you out of isolation in those areas.

If you have experienced victory over isolation, or you find yourself struggling with it, and you have questions, or would like us to pray for you. DM us on our IG @friendsbydesignblog

Theresa and Rene continue the conversation about Ageism in friendships as they dive into the Word and what God says to us as older people and as younger people. They share verses directing us into unity as God has laid out the perfect design for us in this area of our lives. It’s God’s heart that we seek Him and ask Him to show us what we can learn from those older than us and also those younger than us. Join us as we talk about a tough subject that’s been hidden into the culture of “it is what it is” but now Gods says it is finished. Unity means all and we’re taking a step towards that.

Rene & Theresa are passionate about the topic of ageism in the Church and in our friendships, and believe that God wants to reveal some lies and His design for this generation and generations to come. The lies about age have a power over us as individuals and our entire generation, and it’s keeping us from unity, and effectively showing our love for one another to the world, in order to point people to Jesus. We were meant to declare His greatness and glory from generation to generation. Jesus is ready to expose some wrong thinking & give us a better way to think - His way!

We’re continuing this discussion in Episode #6.

Rene & Theresa talk about how they met and how their friendship has developed into a Kingdom Friendship over the past four years, by establishing a biblical friendship that has led them to recognize they are living out God's design for friendship. Truthfully sharing that it’s not always easy, but implementing biblical principles of exhorting, speaking truth in love, building one another up, and interceding for one another - has allowed them to grow in their friendship. Be encouraged - don't limit who God might unexpectedly bring into your life to show you His Design for Friendship!

Tonight’s SHINE Launch Party has been rescheduled and is now on Monday, October 25th.

We have our very first Q&A on this episode! Holy Spirit and our friendships, what does that look like? Let's be honest for a minute, have you ever thought you don't need friends? That your relationship with God is enough? Let's take a look at what scripture says about our need for God and our need for friends. We find that there's wisdom about our friendships God has designed for our benefit, it grow us, it strengthen us, and it even at times challenge us. Its all apart of His design, join in the conversation by sending your questions and comments on our Instagram Page @FriendsByDesignBlog

We’re getting creative in Episode #2, using analogies to describe the responsibility of having Kingdom Friendships. There is a currency of Heaven that's meant to be given away to the world so that they may see God through us. Love is that currency, and it’s really important to God. The cost may seem high, but the reward outweighs that cost every time.