Friendships are powerful things and they can be great, but they also can be dangerous if you drop your guard when it comes to who you choose to be friends with. A guardrail is designed to keep vehicles from straying into dangerous or off-limit areas. You are most likely to find guardrails in potentially dangerous areas of a road, like bridges, medians, or sharp corners. When you drop your spiritual guardrail, you become less careful. Specifically, when we talk about your friends…your posse…your amigos that you hang with: what guardrails are you placing so that they don’t influence the direction and quality of your life in the wrong way, causing you future pain?
Our scripture verse today contains both a promise and a warning. The promise is that wisdom is contagious; it rubs off. The warning is that you run the risk of something bad happening to you if you run with fools. A fool in Proverbs is someone who knows right from wrong, but doesn’t care. When they eventually go down…you go down with them because you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Are you a hanging with the wise or foolish? Wise friends value what is valuable to you. They will never put you in a position where you feel you need to compromise your beliefs or integrity. Foolish friends won’t care, and if you hang with them you will be pressured to compromise, or find yourself pretending to be someone other than who you really are.
…wisdom is contagious…
Lastly as a Christian, and having the Holy Spirit living inside you, you have the “ultimate” guardrail system to “protect and direct” you away from dangerous and foolish friends. When you hear that quiet voice telling your conscience, “Pump the brakes,” and the warning lights go on, you are entering the danger zone. Don’t ignore the warning.
Confession for today: “Jesus I ask You today through your Holy Spirit, to help me sort out my friendships and where I need to cut ties. Give me the strength I need so I no longer allow myself to get backed into a corner and feel pressured or the need to compromise my beliefs or integrity. Thank you that I only choose wise and godly friends, so I can live a wise and blessed life.”
Living for today,
Mr. Tom
