Welcome back! We are back from CAMP and ready to discuss our next topic: friendship.
The first lie we’re going to look at is this: "I can be different people with different groups of friends."
Eighty-four percent of young women agreed with the statement: I can only be myself around people who are like me, such as friends my own age. Do you agree?
The definition of a hypocrite is this: A person who says one thing, and then does another.
Matthew 23: 27b-28 says this, “You are like white washed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead mans bones and everything unclean”.
God hates hypocrisy. If your youth pastor was to pull up your facebook profile, or read through your chat box, would he be shocked? Would he be able to tell that you are a follower of Christ? Living a life of hypocrisy is a dangerous game.
Let’s look at a story from the book:
“Carissa started out innocently meeting people on the internet. But pretty soon, she was having intense sexual conversations with men online. That turned into her going and meeting these guys in person. Carissa found herself doing things with these men that she never would have dreamed of doing a few months before. Carissa’s mother referred to her daughter as ‘sweet’ and ‘compliant’ until the age of nineteen, when her internet problems began. Her family intervened, and things seemed to be going well until recently. Carissa met a woman whom she’d never met, and exchanged phone numbers with her. The woman took a picture of Carissa on her cell phone and texted it to a guy friend. Carissa and this guy immediately started a ‘hot and heavy’ texting conversation which led to them going out to dinner, and then to his place afterwards.”
God wants you to be single-minded. He wants your faith to be evident in every part of your life. James 1:8 says that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Ask the Lord to penetrate every part of your being. Ask Him to help you glorify Him in the way you act and the things you say.
Now on to our next lie: "If I had friends, I wouldn’t be so lonely."
How many times have you sat at home on a Friday night and thought, “If I had friends, I wouldn’t be stuck here”? The truth is, friends can never fully satisfy us. We could have a million friends, but we would still be lonely without God. There is no greater friend than God.
Wouldn’t you love a friend who:
-never leaves
-loves you completely
-knows every detail about you…and still loves you
-no matter how hard things get, you’ll never be separated from that love
-desires to be with you forever
God calls us to be a true friend. If your focus in the friendship is you, you’re not pursuing true friendship. Sometimes we need to stop wanting to be befriended, and start being the ones doing the befriending.
Want some good Truth about friendship? The Truth is that you are called to be a true friend to others in need and to experience friendship with Christ.
Who can you be a true friend to this week? What steps do you need to take to be a true friend? Be bold and start new today.
And since we're talking about true friends, what better way to end than with a solid reminder of what true friends look like, check out Michael W. Smith's friendly (and only mildly cheesy/outdated) hit. Enjoy! ;)
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