Thursday January 10, 2019

 

Birds of a feather flock together.

 

The people you associate with on a daily basis have far more influence on the direction and quality of your life than you can ever imagine. From the food you eat to the clothes you wear, from the way you feel to the way you speak, from the way you think to the way you act, every area of your life has been and is being impacted by the people you interact with.

 

Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble. Proverbs 13:20 NLT

 

This is an amazing principle; if you want to become wise all you have to do is to associate with wise people. However, if you choose to hang out with fools not only will you become a fool you will get into trouble. Let us look at the Biblical definition of a wise person. A wise person is someone who knows what is right and what is wrong and chooses to do what is right. On the other hand, a fool knows the difference between right and wrong and chooses to do wrong. A wise person says, although smoking is legal, I choose not to smoke because smoking leads to cancer and heart disease. A fool says I know that smoking can kill me but sooner or later I am going to die anyway.

 

Bad company corrupts good character. 1 Corinthians 15:33 NIV

 

Many of your character defects are directly attributed to the people you choose to hang out with. If you are going to choose happiness you will need to work on hanging out with the right people because happiness is not something you will achieve on your own.

 

Throughout the week we have been saying that happiness is the result of transformed lives. We also said that our Heavenly Father wants to transform us through the renewing of our minds; if we think differently then we will act differently. How do we learn to think differently? One way is to do the following:

 

7. Focus on people who help me not hinder me.

Today we reached the seventh and final focusing exercise. The choice set before you today is to focus on surrounding yourself with the people who will help you achieve the goal of being transformed from your hurts, hang-ups, and bad habits, and therefore becoming truly and consistently happy.

 

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.  – Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NLT

 

You did not get hurt and you did not develop your hang-ups and bad habits on your own. By the same token, you cannot recover on your own; you need to build relationships with the right people. I know no better place to accomplish this than the local church, but not just any local church. You should find a local church where Christ followers who understand how much we need each other attend.