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Choosing Friends
060926 Tuesday, September 26, 2006 Daily Devotional
By Brent Riggs
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Proverbs 12:26 The righteous should choose his friends carefully, For the way of the wicked leads them astray. (NKJV)
A Christian should very carefully consider who they have as close friends. Like all things about this fallen world, it is our natural tendency to surround ourselves with those people who feed our fleshly appetites; be it ego, recognition, admiration, immorality or pleasure.
We are sinful by nature (Jer 17.9). We war in every area of our life against the natural inclination to please ourselves; and rationalize our behavior with a surface-coat of Godliness. We must not forget our superior ability to deceive ourselves and our expert skill at dressing up sinfulness in righteous clothes.
Your friends either feed your appetite for self,
or war side-by-side with you in pursuit of Godliness.
Job’s friends were not Godly and only served to cause more pain to the already suffering Job. Daniels friends were men of God who stood with him against a pagan society even to the point of death. Sometimes we surround ourselves with friends who give us a false sense of holiness or spirituality simply because their level of holiness and discipline is even less than ours. Beware of apathy, complacency and self-righteousness that comes from comparing yourself to anyone other than Christ (1Cor 10.12).
It is our natural tendency to think we can pull others up to a higher spiritual level. It is a fact of humanity, that we will always descend to the lowest common level of those we spend the most time with. That is why our closest and most intimate friend should be the Lord. He is the ultimate standard and the more time we spend with Him, the more He becomes our standard.
John 15:12-15 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. (NKJV)
As with all fleshly pleasure, there is very real pleasure in friends who will join us in our pursuit of wealth, status, recognition and the continual never-satisfied hunger for pleasure. We must learn to embrace the SUPERIOR SATISFACTION of Godly friends rather than feed our gluttony for self-satisfaction. Have you ever thought about the idea of:
Superior satisfaction.
Super satisfaction typically involves foregoing short term, immediate gratification for a long-term superior satisfaction in something God says we have to wait for. Superior satisfaction means choosing what is best in God's eyes. Superior satisfaction means understanding what is truly valuable in light of eternity.
- There is pleasure in an abundance of leisure and sleep. There is superior satisfaction in disciplined time spent with God.
- There is (admittedly, though short term and guilt-producing) satisfaction in sexual immorality. But there is a superior satisfaction in moral purity.
- There is satisfaction in the acquisition of material wealth and status. There is superior satisfaction in the eternal investment of sacrifice for God’s kingdom.
- There is satisfaction in having friends that fulfill our craving for pleasure, entertainment, ego, admiration or importance. But there is superior satisfaction in cultivating holy friendships that lead us to the cross, refine our desire for holiness and challenge us to new heights in our devotion to Christ.
Who have your surrounded yourself with? Do they cultivate the world, or God in your life? Who do you spend most of your time with? Does their company inevitably lead to the cross or to the flesh? Who do you call friend? Do they increase your holiness or your worldliness? Do your friends fulfill your “self” needs, or your righteous needs?
Father, help us today to choose friends wisely. May we choose those friends who will help us to be more like your Son. May we be that type of friend to someone else. Amen.
Contemplation: Have you ever thought about why you have the friends you have? Do they lead you closer to God even when it hurts? Or do they feed your worldly pleasures?
Application: Choose to have close friends who challenge you spiritually, confront your sin, and hold you accountable in your walk with God.
- What is the most obvious Bible truth you have learned today?
- What change in your life needs to be made concerning this truth?
- What specific thing will you do today to begin that change?
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Choosing Friends
060926 Tuesday, September 26, 2006 Daily Devotional
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Proverbs 12:26
Spanish
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A Christian should very carefully consider who they have as close friends. Like all things about this fallen world, it is our natural tendency to surround ourselves with those people who feed our fleshly appetites; be it ego, recognition, admiration, immorality or pleasure. |
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A Few Bible Verses that contain "friend":
3 John 1:14 but I hope shortly to see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace `be' unto thee. The friends salute thee. Salute the friends by name.
James 4:4 Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God.
James 2:23 and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God.
Acts 27:3 And the next day we touched at Sidon: and Julius treated Paul kindly, and gave him leave to go unto his friends and refresh himself.
Acts 24:23 And he gave order to the centurion that he should be kept in charge, and should have indulgence; and not to forbid any of his friends to minister unto him.
Acts 19:31 And certain also of the Asiarchs, being his friends, sent unto him and besought him not to adventure himself into the theatre.
Acts 12:20 Now he was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: and they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was fed from the king's country.
Acts 10:24 And on the morrow they entered into Caesarea. And Cornelius was waiting for them, having called together his kinsmen and his near friends.
John 19:12 Upon this Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou release this man, thou art not Caesar's friend: every one that maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.
John 15:15 No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father, I have made known unto you.
John 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you.
John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 11:11 These things spake he: and after this he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus is fallen asleep; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
John 3:29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, that standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is made full.
Luke 23:12 And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day: for before they were at enmity between themselves.
Luke 21:16 But ye shall be delivered up even by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and friends; and `some' of you shall they cause to be put to death.
Luke 16:9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when it shall fail, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles.
Luke 15:29 But he answered and said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, and I never transgressed a commandment of thine; and `yet' thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:
Luke 15:9 And when she hath found it, she calleth together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost.
Luke 15:6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and his neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.
Luke 14:12 And he said to him also that had bidden him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, nor rich neighbors; lest haply they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee.
Luke 14:10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest place; that when he that hath bidden thee cometh, he may say to thee, friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have glory in the presence of all that sit at meat with thee.
Luke 12:4 And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
Luke 11:8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will arise and give him as many as he needeth.
Luke 11:6 for a friend of mine is come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him;
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