Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.
Proverbs 13:20 Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.
Proverbs 12:26 The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
These are just a few of the many verses referencing healthy friendship. I have found that there are 3 kinds of friendship that all of us should have.
- Core Friends
Jesus had the 12 disciples but Peter, James and John were His core. He shared and showed more to them than the other 9. When you have the right core friends. All of your core friends should be strong believers and unless you are married to them or blood related, they should all be the same gender. These friends are the ones you share your life with. They give you insight and strength. When you have the right core friends, the roots of your faith, character, and relationships dig deeper and give you greater capacity for the next levels of friendship. A tree with shallow roots and broad branches will never weather a storm. Jesus said we would have storms and modeled keeping a strong core to have strong roots.
2. Squad Friends
These friends are the ones you spend a lot of time with. You have fun and love doing life with these people. Most of the friends in this group should be believers. To do this level of friendship well and not destroy your roots you need to know how to do relationships here. This is not the group of people who you look to for advice, and you will need to have some strong resolve in two areas: 1. I will never let my friends distract me from God’s plan. Jesus was on a mission to lay down his life to save the world, but the 12 tried to encourage him not to go to the cross. Jesus deep roots and clear resolve kept him on mission. 2. I will never let my friends continually tempt me to sin. Temptation is inevitable, but we all know the people that intentionally tempt us to compromise our values. That is why in this relationship you HAVE to be the influencer and not the one influenced. If you cannot do that the best thing you can to is separate this friendship to the next level.
3. Missional Friends
I am going to write more about this next week. How do we lead people far to God to Him? Jesus was clear to GO!
So do you have the right people in your core? Who do you share your heart with that shouldn’t be in your core? Who is in your squad that distracts you from God’s plan or tempts you continually? Get the right core so your roots can dig deep and your reach of God’s plan for you life can reach it’s potential. Show me your friends and Ill show you your future.
Recklessly, obsessively following Jesus
Brandon Sereg
