Making Good Friends
It was ordained from inception that man would want companionship.
A great man of God once said
The company you keep determines what follows you
Friends are companions, they are helpers to our destiny.
A story is said about a man named David who lived during the ancestry of Israel He had a friend named Jonathan whom God used to deliver David from the hands of a wicked king named Saul. Saul’s intention was to kill David But Jonathan helped David his friend and because of his help David’s life was saved on many occasions when he faced death. I strongly advise you read this story to the end, it’s recorded in 1st Samuel
Sadly, in our world today we see the exact opposite. The very people who are supposed to be helpers to achieving your glorious destiny have now become destroyers of your life.
Nothing happens on its own accord.
The reason why many adults are frustrated today is because of bad choices they made while they were your age, and one of those choices is what I call “Company Choice”.
Believe it or not, no man is an island.
Teenagers sometimes have this outrageous mindset that they can do everything on our own, that they don’t want anybody else. If you’re going to be great and fulfill your destiny, you’ll need all the help you can get.
This is why we need to choose wisely when making friends.
KNOW THIS: There’s a difference between friends and playmates.
Playmates are people who keep you company whereas friends are people who take part in your values When we feel sad or lonely, we need someone to talk to and when we are happy, we need someone to share that happiness with.
Friends are indeed a necessity
The friends you make will either have a positive or negative influence on you.
How To Make Good Friends?
1. Know who you are: You must first know who you are in order to make a correct choice of friends, your identity is your first priority. As a child of God, you understand that you are a special person, God said you are special, set out for a glorious destiny.
So, here’s the question – Who Are You?.
Without a true and precise knowledge of who you are in Christ, you’ll be carried about easily by “the winds of life WHO ARE YOU?
You have no business making friends if you don’t know who you are.
WHO ARE YOU?
1. You are Chosen – 1Peter 2:9.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
God said you have been chosen to show forth the light of God to the ends of the earth. God chose you because he loves you.
It said in that portion that you are a royal priesthood; this is not all made up; God himself said so and he can’t lie. If he said you’re a royal priesthood then that is who you are. If he said you have been chosen then that is what it is.
Most teenagers when faced with challenges say a lot of terrible things about themselves but as a child of God, God wants you to keep saying positive things about yourself. Rather than say” I can’t” say “I can”.
The words you speak about yourself are very powerful.
A wise king once said
Life and death are in the power of the tongue
2. You are a King/Queen: That is who you are, a King or Queen.
Understand that God would never call you something you’re not. If he calls you a King then that is who you are.
The question is – Do you believe it? You have to believe it in order to walk in that consciousness.
This is how to live as a King/Queen
See it- You have to study the word to see what God says about you and what he has in store for you
Believe it – Once you’ve seen a verse like you have to believe it
Declare it – No matter the tantrums or challenges you find yourself in you must keep declaring who you are and not the opposite.
If you can’t seem to understand a particular subject in school find what the bible says about it and declare these verses.
Walk in the consciousness – Begin to live like a king/queen.
The only way to grow as a King/Queen is by studying, knowing and doing what God says. Obey God no matter what.
Revelation 1:5
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood
Now that you know who you are let’s start making friends
1. Friendship demands that you possess a good knowledge of your qualities, values, and beliefs in order to attract the same category of people. One of the laws of life is
Like attracts like
ILLUSTRATION
A magnet will attract another magnet or metallic products (Office pins) but not wood or a leaf.
Why is that? That’s because a magnet only attracts or you can say make friends with things that have the same properties it does, a magnet will never attract wood neither will wood attract a magnet because they both have different qualities and that makes them unable to relate.
In the same vein you will only attract people like you or even higher than your status quo, if you want to have friends with positive values and qualities you must first have those qualities in you or you can show genuine interest in those qualities in someone and attach yourself to that person (boy/girl).
When it comes to friendship quality is better than quantity.
2. Choose friends who have the same qualities as you
Not everyone who claims to be a friend has what it takes to live up to the label. So, your friends must be people who share the same values you do.
A studious person can’t make friends with someone who’d rather party than study.
3. Choose friends who have qualities you don’t have but are worthy of imitation
The more desperate you are for friends, the more likely you will be to settle for the wrong kind.
When the Bible addresses these people as stupid ones it means they have turned their backs on sound reasoning and choose to follow a morally insensible course. These are the kinds of friends you can do without. “Whatsoever things”
4. Be Discriminative When Choosing Friends: This does not mean you should go into vicious stereotypes, neither does it mean that you should be prejudiced.
But rather, this means that you should be perceptive enough to distinguish between the one who’s serving God and the one who’s not. Mal 3:18. ” Do not be unequally yoked”.
5. Positive Influence: Our friends will either have a positive or negative influence on us. When you conform to others standards you are like a pawn on a chessboard being moved about easily by others. This kind of control goes against the will, this is the root of many negative vices in our society.
God gave you the will to live life as you want.
When you got born again, God didn’t just possess you and control you like a robot No! But rather he gave you the freedom to choose whose side you belong. He said in his word. Deuteronomy 30:19
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
Cut off ties with people who insist on making you conform to their status.
This step will most likely make you have fewer friends but you’ll also open the door to better friends that will lead to the positive influence
QUESTIONS?
Do you change the way you dress, speak, or act in a bad way just to please your friends?
Do you find yourself going to morally questionable places that you would not frequent if it were not for your friends?
If you answered yes to those questions you have to either talk to your parents about it or a mature adult or a Christian Leader.
Most especially, talk to God about it.
Let us round off this article with this story by Kenneth Hagin
A Pregnant lioness was delivered of a male Lion. The pack was attacked by a hunter who stole the young lion, took him to his home and put him in the sack among the sheep.
In the process of time, the Lion and sheep grew.
Whenever the sheep went to the stream to drink water and they see a lion or wolf they would run and the young lion would run too.
Whenever and whatever the sheep ate the Lion did too, he grew and lived like a sheep.
One day, they went out for a drink as usual, and the lion saw his reflection FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE in the water.
Then he looked at “his friends” and realized that something must be wrong.
He asked himself – Why do I look like this?” Why can’t I look like the others?
He was in deep thought while still staring glaringly at his reflection in the water. A few minutes later a Lion came by and as usual, the herd ran; the young lion saw that he looked a lot like the creature across the river, then he said to himself – “The next time I see this creature I will follow it” And instead of running from the lion he turned his back and slowly walked away.
He went home but couldn’t sleep and was in deep thought. He kept wondering what that strange creature was and why he looked so much like it and not like the other sheep. He was curious and decided to find out what that creature was the next time he encountered it.
The following day the herd went for another drink, this time in the evening, the young Lion, filled with fear and boldness at the same time was ready to face this creature whom he thought of as “mysterious”.
Then came the Lion, as usual, the sheep ran but the young lion stood still.
Fearless and determined, he gently crossed the river unto the other side. Hw looked boldly into the eye of this creature and so did the creature to him.
It took a while but the same day he was reunited with his family and he would never return to sheep life again because now he knows who he is and he was BORN TO REIGN.
