REFLECT: Do not be deceived: Evil company corrupts good habits: 1 Corinthians 15: 33
APPLY: Make no mistake: if you keep toxic friends, they will poison your life (Job 17: 2-4). Assessing your friendships, and taking decisive action – kindly, not harshly – is an important step in detoxifying your spirit. The people we keep close, and permit to have access into our lives, are emissaries of the power(s) that rule their lives. You will not realize it – until the negative fruit takes you by surprise.
Christiane was raised according to christian values. She sincerely took them to heart, but fell in with a group of friends to whom walking a christian walk was not important. She wanted to remain a virgin until marriage, but her friends thought this was old-fashioned. Christiane decided privately that she would do so, regardless of what they thought.
Her holier-than-thou attitude adjusted with each fall: at least she didn’t make out with boys; at least she didn’t have one night stands; at least she was in a committed relationship; at least they planned to marry and have other children.
God started sending people to her – people to whom she could relate, but who were also committed to living by God’s principles. She tactfully stopped socializing with her old circle – though she remained on good terms with them. She slowly acquired a new circle of like-minded friends. She re-committed her life to Christ, and turned her life around.
Going forward, she refused sexual intimacy, until she met and married a like-minded Christian man. She continued in her walk and regained her strong, obedient faith in God.
As the old adage goes: show me your friends, and I’ll tell you who you are.
PRAY: Father, friends can be such a support. I thank you for my friends, and all the blessings that have come to me through them. There is a time and a season for all things (Ecclesiastes 3: 1, 5): help me to assess all my friendships, that I may let go of those that are toxic or have served their time. Please give me the courage to let go of every bad influence, and to be comforted by the truth that You are the ultimate friend. I take to heart now the truth that with You I need never be lonely. Hold me close Father. In Jesus Name, Amen.