day 1201: Associates and Friends

Today's post is a repost of one from the late David Wilkerson.  I first read David Wilkerson's words when I was 12 years old from his book, "The Cross and the Switchblade".  Today, I still read his words as his ministry continues to publish daily.  I've recently been thinking about those whom we surround ourselves with in the business world and in our personal lives and this message struck home and I wanted to pass it along.

Pastor David Wilkerson:

Who do you name as your closest friends? Believe it or not, this question is a matter of great concern to the Lord because your friendships speak loudly, both to God and to the world, about the condition of your heart.

"Lord, what do You think of my friendships? Are they pleasing to You?" Have you ever thought to ask Him these questions? The fact is, a righteous friend can provide a link to the blessing and favor of God, because he encourages you toward a godly lifestyle. On the other hand, an unrighteous friend can be a chain to every kind of evil, leading you into terrible bondages.

As I use the word friend throughout this message, I am not referring to immediate family members. My definition of a friend here is someone with whom you are closely associated, one in whom you naturally confide. In short, a friend is someone with whom you walk and talk and to whom you bare your soul.

You probably have various circles of friends: a "business" circle, which includes your coworkers, partners or clients; a "social" circle, which includes those with whom you associate on a surface level. You also may have contact with ungodly acquaintances. The apostle Paul says it's impossible for us to avoid these kinds of contacts; otherwise, we would have to leave the world altogether!

Yet the circle God cares about most is your intimate circle, your bosom pals.

These are the people you love most, and who most influence your life. You are naturally attracted to one another, and you agree on most things so you feel safe opening your heart to each other.

The Bible tells us we are not to be ignorant concerning Satan's seductions. And one of the devil's most common attacks against us is to bring into our inner circle of friends someone who is walking in deception, an agent of hell who is on a mission to destroy us. Satan especially uses this ploy with lonely or compassionate Christians. He tries to turn an undiscerning person's kindness into an affinity with an evil spirit!

“Do not be deceived: evil communications [companions] corrupt good manners [people]” (1 Corinthians 15:33).

 

day 691: Stickiness of Friends

:There are "friends" who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother."

The technology world is awash in a new social network; Google+. I'm not really sure how many more social networks I need, but I have accepted my invitation to Google+ and I can see some advantages to the Circles and Streams. It is also interesting in that in this new social network I can now categorize my friends more so than in the past. The definition of friends continues to evolve and I can see that more and more of business will revolve around the concept of friendship. Friends are sticky. That means that if we can get friends involved or interested in the same things, then they are more likely to stick with something together. If we trust our friends more than others, then it makes sense that we would tap into those same people for recommendations, supports, guidance, etc. But, this demands an even further deepening and stratification of the definition of friend. I'm not sure who can truly define who is a friend or not better than each one of us individually, but it is certainly something for us to watch in our businesses, because if we can get our customers to tap into their friends for us, then we can see a new set of customers emerge.

In our personal, work, and spiritual lives, God calls on us to define our friends to an even deeper level. We are not to be the type of friends who would tear each other down through competition, envy or coveting. We as Solomon says, are to know that "a real friend sticks closer than a brother". That means, never turning way and always being there for each other. Sure, brothers may argue and not always see eye-to-eye, but they are always to come back to each other and be there when needed. We call ourselves brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to be sure that we are living up to that label and standard that comes with the definition set by Solomon. Today, let's think about our friends and check whether or not we are sticking with them.

Reference: Proverbs 18:24 (New Living Testament)

day 517: Pick Your Work Friends Carefully

We aren't always fortunate enough to choose who we work with on our jobs, but we do get to pick our friends. We may be limited by geography, departments or some other reasons but in most cases we still get to choose who our friends are at work. Our friends say a lot about us to others and our friends, whether or not we know it or not, have a huge influence on who are and how we act. I remember working with a person who became a work friend and we all hung out together. He was funny and smart and he had his own sayings about things and before long we all were saying all the same cliches that he said. Some of them were good things and some were bad things. The point is that we chose our friend and before long we all had picked up his habits. For those outside of the clique I am sure now that it looked like Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men. The same can be said about what can happen to us when our friends are not such happy people. We can also get dragged down from the attitudes of others and become associated with these attitudes too. In Proverbs we read; "Don't befriend angry people or associate with hot-tempered people." We need to be careful about who we pick as our friends as they become an extension of us and they also become more influential to ourselves than we may know.

Reference: Proverbs 22:24 (New Living Testament)