We all have our best friends, people we spend MOST of our time with…even more than our families sometimes…and we’ve also got just the people we see every day that we may call our friends but we may not talk to them every day…
BUT no matter how much time we spend with a friend…FRIENDS ARE MORE THAN JUST A PART OF OUR PAST, THEY BECOME A PART OF US…
There is something about being close to someone that, without being careful, we can start acting exactly like them…most of the time without us even realizing it…
I loved having friends…having people like me was a big deal…I didn’t have many close friends growing up but I had a lot of people that I knew and would probably call a friend…I would also do ANYTHING to be friends with someone…not desperately…but I just really wanted to be friends with everyone…and especially in middle school and through to high school…that’s when friendships started to demand more of who I was….or better…who I was going to choose to be…
Grade 11 made the football team…people started to pay more attention to me…girls started paying attention to me (most importantly)…BUT the thing was these friends were not the kind of people that I normally would hang out with…they partied, treated girls like crap, they weren’t the best influences for me to be around…BUT because I am JOHN LAMOS and couldn’t do anything wrong I thought I was ok and I could just drive them to the parties and pretty much stay as close to the line as I could without crossing it…
That didn’t last too long…started partying and drinking and trying to get as many girls to like me at the same time…and TOTALLY 100% losing track of what was really important in my life…GOD AND WHO I WAS IN HIM…
From that point on for the next 4 years…it went on and kept getting worse and led to a life that I definitely did not want to be living…
FRIENDS ARE MORE THAN JUST A PART OF OUR PAST, THEY BECOME A PART OF US…
BUT…how hard is it to find friends that believe and act the same way you want to? How hard is it to find friends that are trying to lead a life that is pleasing GOD and living a life you are trying to live? And you definitely can’t live you life without having friends…THE DESIRE FOR FRIENDS IS SO GREAT THAT WE SIMPLY ALLOW OURSELVES TO DRIFT INTO FRIENDSHIPS WITHOUT REALLY THINKING ABOUT…
We starting getting close to people are start hanging with the wrong people because the desire to be friends with them is greater than doing the right thing or keeping your distance…spiritually…
SO HOW DO WE CHOOSE THE RIGHT FRIENDS AND HAVE FUFILLING AND HEALTHY INFLUENCES IN OUR LIVES…WITHOUT BEING LONELY AND NOT HAVING ANY FRIENDS
Remember King David…well he had a son named Solomon and he was a very very wise man…people would come from all over the place to ask him questions and to get his advice about everything…and his wisdom was a gift from GOD…He asked GOD for this wisdom…
David was a man after GOD’S own heart…David had incredible faith in the LORD…but this faith did not stay with Solomon as it did with his father…
1 Kings 11:4-6
Solomon started to fall away from GOD in a way that he probably never wanted to happen…He was the song of the Kind David…a man that had a heart that was madly in love with GOD…and I’m sure Solomon wanted to have this same faith and favor with GOD…But he fell away…
And how did he fall away?...he started to follow the gods that his wives followed…but even before that…he marries women that totally had no faith in the same and right GOD that Solomon had faith in…it was the influence of his wives that totally shook and killed the faith that Solomon had in a GOD who was desperately in love with him and had incredible plans for Solomon’s life…
Solomon got sucked in to the life of the people around him and it led him to a place that he never wanted to be…He was the man that shouldn’t have fallen for this…GOD gave this guy incredible wisdom…He should have known better…But it doesn’t matter who we are…
FRIENDS BECOME A PART OF US….
Proverbs 13:20
Proverbs 22:24-25
The mistake that Solomon made that that he didn’t think about where his influences were coming from…He didn’t think first before he entered this relationships and friendships…He went in blindly…Becoming close to someone shouldn’t be a small decision to us…we need to think about who we are spending most of our time with and who we are giving our time to…we need to think about who has the influence over our lives…
Solomon failed in this and it eventually led to him falling away from GOD…the same GOD that gave him his gifts and loved and believed in him…
Building and investing time in friendships really comes down to one thing: BEING SMART WHO ARE CLOSEST TO YOU…thinking about who is influencing you and who you are spending your time with…and possibly who you are becoming because of the person you are hanging out with…
GOD does want you to be lonely…He created us to have friendships and He created us to long for that human friendships…he did not create us to feel lonely or unwanted by people…But that does not mean we need to have busy 100% of the times…because when we start worrying about that and trying to consume our time with everything and everyone we can think of…that’s when we start losing our focus and stop thinking about the people we are spending time with and calling our friends…
Think of your closest friends right now…How does your day usually go…what do you guys do and what kind of stuff are you getting into…just think quietly about it for a second…this is going to sound cheesy and super corny…but it’s the right question to ask yourself…ARE THOSE FRIENDS CHANGING WHO I AM…if they are helping you in your relationship in GOD and you guys are growing together that’s awesome and I’m praying that’s happening with all of you…BUT what if that’s not happening…What if you’re thinking about your friends right now and what is coming to your mind is exactly opposite of something good…What if what comes into your head is completely not what you ever thought you would be or what you would be doing with yourself? IS THAT A GOOD THING?
Its all about the influence we have in our lives…Im not saying because someone is doing something wrong DO NOT BE THERE FRIEND…because maybe you are the only way they get to see JESUS…but be careful not to let that influence you…That’s where we need to think and we need GOD’S help figuring out who is influencing us and who isn’t….
SHOW ME YOUR FRIENDS AND I’LL SHOW YOU YOUR FUTURE
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