Blog post written by: Alex Dowell (summer intern)
How to Sabotage Your Life—Wrong Relationships
No one wakes up one morning and plans to ruin their life
with bad decisions. It happens
gradually, over time. Last week James
taught on how we can sabotage our life by making the wrong choices with our
relationships.
Ultimately, our goal and desire is to become mature,
well-adjusted men and women who love and follow God, love people, and live for
God’s glory. So, it’s important to know
what not to do.
Do you parents ever show concern about who you hang out
with? Do they have little wise sayings
about friends? (One bad apple ruins the
whole bunch, if your friends jumped off a bridge would you, birds of a feather
flock together, etc….)
Wrong relationships can take on many different forms. It
could be a boyfriend or girlfriend that is not good for you, a group of friends
that is a bad influence, or just simply the people you surround yourself with. It could also be the lack of surrounding
yourself with other people, by isolating yourself. This is one of the
quickest ways to compromise ourselves and sabotage our spiritual growth, by
allowing bad influence in our lives.
We are designed by God to be in community with others. We are made in the image of God, which involves
the need for relationship. So, the
desire to be close to people is a good one, we simply distort that sometimes.
7 ways to sabotage your life with wrong relationships
1.
Do anything your
friends do, no matter the consequences.
2.
Always try to fit
in, no matter what.
3.
Make people and
friends the most important thing in your life.
4.
Always only
listen to the advice of your friends and peers.
5.
Isolate yourself
from all other people except for 1 or 2 friends.
6.
Have low
standards for friendships.
7.
Have low standards
for dating relationships.
The book of Proverbs has important insight about
relationships
-Proverbs 13:20—Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise,
but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
-Proverbs 5:1-6—My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline
your ear to my understanding, that you may keep discretion, and your lips may
guard knowledge. For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech
is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a
two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;
she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know
it.
Above all else, guard your hear. Does that mean we are to
live in a bubble, and never interact with anyone who is not a Christian?
No! We are the light of the world, the
salt of the earth…we simply must be wise about who we surround ourselves with.
2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1
We will sabotage our lives with wrong relationships. We must learn to be wise and avoid the traps
of wrong relationships.
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