Lone Ranger or Faithful Friend?

You don’t have to go it alone.

God never intended for us to fight our spiritual battles alone. However, one of the biggest temptations we face during the holidays is to become a “lone ranger,” and get distant from the friends God has put in our lives to help us spiritually. Feeling stressed, guilty, frustrated and alone are all signs that we have become a spiritual lone ranger.

To become a faithful friend, or to have faithful friends, we need to identify and repent of sins like pride, jealousy and selfishness. These sins keep us lonely and more vulnerable to attacks on our faith. Choosing to be close to our peers and letting them help us spiritually over the holidays will help us be faithful, powerful enough to overcome sin, and able to start off the new year right.

Scripture

For I am yearning to see you, that I may impart and share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen and establish you; That is, that we may be mutually strengthened and encouraged and comforted by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
Romans 1:11-12

Questions

Which peer relationships has God put in your life to help strengthen your faith?

Relationships with other Christians should be mutually strengthening. That means that we have peers who know our sins and weaknesses and who call us to grow stronger.

A peer is someone in the same life stage as you are, not someone you consider “ahead” of you spiritually or in life. It is easy to only want to be open and honest about our sins and weaknesses with those we consider “wiser” or more mature. It is more humbling to be honest with our peers, but God’s plan is for us to mutually encourage each other as we fight similar battles.

What sins in your life stop you from being close to friends who help you spiritually?

If we are going to have close friends who help us spiritually, we need to identify and repent of certain sins in our lives, such as:

• Pride (I don’t want to be honest with him about my sins because I don’t want him to think he is better than me…I don’t think that person can really help me anyway … look at all the sins in their life!)
• Jealousy and envy (I hate that she has what I want, and I don’t even like talking to her)
• Selfishness (It feels hard and tiring to care about someone else’s life, and I mostly think about me)

Additional Thoughts

Choose 5 peers that you are going to be spend time with, be open with, and make a commitment to helping stay strong spiritually going into the new year.

Additional scriptures for further study:

• James 3:13-17
• Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
• Ephesians 6:10-18
• James 5:16
• Hebrews 3:12-13
• Philippians 2:1-4
• 1 Corinthians 10:13