Got a devotional I want to share.... Your comments or thoughts welcome. * GraceMae
Bad Company
2Th. 3:11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command
and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company
with him, that he may be ashamed.
In this walk, we run across people all the time. Some we encourage, witness to, and lead to Christ. Some we befriend and keep close, others we deal with for a season and God moves them on. We must be careful to hear God about our friends. The enemy will put certain people in your life or keep certain people in your life just to frustrate you. Even though they will call themselves "friend" they may be more of a stress factor. We sometimes feel that it is our God given duty to keep everyone that is claiming to need help around us. But that is not the case. There are some you can help and there are others you can't. So, you have to be strong enough to tell some folks "Bye Bye!" No hate, no malice, no hard feelings, just plain old "Good bye!" Do not live your life in bondage to bad friends. Those relationships can be just as bad as an abusive spouse. The wrong friend can cause you grief. Smiling in your face and tearing you down behind your back. Using you for what you have accomplished and riding you into their 15 minutes of fame! Undoing all the other relationships you had because they want to be your focus. Always hearing and listening, but never coming to the knowledge of the truth that you are sharing with them!
I think one of the worst things about the new internet craze myspace is the misuse of the word "friend". Christians have secular, sin promoters on their pages listed as friends. They have their famous idols and worldly counterparts listed on their pages as friends while these people do not even believe the bible and desire to promote that which is ungodly? Yet many christians for the sake of acceptance and promotion will befriend the unsaved and inadvertantly promote their agenda with their pages. This happens in real life too. So called believers unequally yoked with folks as
friends. Sure you want to reach the lost and be in position to win them to Christ, but the true definition of a friend is "a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard" A christian that has a bunch of unsaved friends that will not accept the Christ in them is a sign
of weakness and low self worth. You must not continue to surround yourself with ungodly people if you are Godly. Sure we reach the world and Jesus did eat with sinners, but only to reach out to them and not for friendships! He had 12 friends that believed as he believed for the most part and that's who he chose to attach himself to. And if you have an unsaved friend that doesn't desire God or even to know God then you must reevaluate that person's place in your life. Believers beware! Some folks are just not gonna get it! Some people are just not gonna add up to what you are
expecting. Some people are just not gonna be healthy for you to embrace. So, get Godly boldness and separate yourself from them. If you don't have the courage to, there is a prayer that I have prayed since I was a teenager
and it's fool proof. It works every time. Pray, "Lord, take away those that are not suppose to be in my life, and add those that should be!" Works every time. But be careful with this prayer. Sometimes, family members, folks you have known all your life, and even Pastors/church folks will
disappear from your life! But God knows and will add to you whom he will if you let him.
(www.exministries.com �2009 G. Craige Works All Rights Reserved)
So very very true...When I stood at the cross roads, surrenderd and accepted Jesus and the path less traveled...a lady friend suggested I say this prayer, and to be truely willing to accept what God does on my behalf. It amazed me that of all the people that I thought and believed were friends just kinda drifted away...gota admit, it hurt...and the lady friend, she is still in and a part of my life. God truely does no best...xo
MuffNkl Toihny Hawhum.....sorry I had my mouth full of chesse and crackers.
Amen to that.
It is sad and heartbreaking, but you will be brought down if you allow them to continue.
In a burning building there will always be those few that do not want to move and you may have to make a decision to leave them and save as many others as possible....heartbreaking. but necessary.
Also some of them will panic and grab ahold of you and threaten your own life, where you will have to rebuke them and continue with those that you can save. It is a hard and difficult decision that will always be with you.....but a correct one.
We are called to go to Heaven and bring as many as we can with us...sadly some will not follow.
Wow...well, this was defintatly an eye and spirit opener for me. I have been walking with Jesus for about 22 years and along the road I have had friends...Or rather Aqcuaintences that are just in my life..wether at work, or on the outside..sometimes it is a lonely road..My child as an example is only 10 and he loves JEsus..he has been a victim of verbal abuse and cruelty of other children his age and older, he cries alot saying mom, why wont GOd give me some friends? I say to him..ya know Jay, GOd will give you what he wants you to have..Those people who hurt you are not your friends and that is for a reason. But, pray and God will give you what you ask for in his timing..and then I gently reminded him that the Bible says a man of many companions will soon come to ruin, but a true friend is closer than a brother..I told him..IN this life if you have one dear friend sent to you by GOd..then you are blessed..NOW if only I can eat my own words..amen? THanks for sharing that..It was convicting as well as uplifting and encouraging....I have had many friends along the way that have up and went and now I think I see it from a different light..thanks again...GOd bless you all.
