Friends for Your Future
Today’s devotional is adapted from my new book, Don’t Look Back.
Who are your friends? Who are the people running alongside you; exhorting you to keep moving forward, to stay on mission; and helping you not look back when looking back is all you want to do? Who is it that reminds you of what we all need to hear from time to time: “Remember Lot’s wife!”
Wouldn’t it be great for us all to start saying that to one another every time we begin to see each other about to look back? Because we know that what often follows looking back is getting stuck, and getting stuck keeps us from moving on with all the plans and purpose God has for us, doesn’t it?
Every one of us needs life-giving friends who will caution us when we start to drift away from God, even when we don’t mean to. We need friends who will speak the truth, even when it’s difficult for us to hear. We need true friends who will love us unconditionally and genuinely want the best for us, who will inspire us and make us better in every way. Scripture tells us, Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another (Proverbs 27:17, CSB). What’s more, we want to be this same kind of friend, don’t we?
We need friends who will encourage us like the writer of Hebrews said: And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:24–25, CSB).
We need friends who know how to pray for us and pray with us, who will help us get into the presence of Jesus when we can’t figure out how to get there on our own. Sometimes, we need the faith of our friends to help move us forward in life, to get from the place where we’re stuck to where God wants us to go.
