How To Spot A Bad Friend (and overcome peer pressure)
“You will be the same person ten years from now that you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” Charles Jones, from his book, Life Is Tremendous.
Have you stopped to think about the friends in your life? Is there someone dragging you down?
Life is full of relationships. Our relationships with God, parents, family and friends play a huge role in forming us in to the person we are becoming.
Proverbs 1:10-14 shines the spotlight of truth on how to spot a bad friend. It’s that person in your life that is pushing you away from being the person God wants you to be and being that person your parents desire you to be.
Here are the three strategies a bad friend uses to bring you down to their level.
1. Invite – My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Proverbs 1:10
- It starts with an “invitation.” Everyone wants to be included and this friend will come to you often and entice you to come join us and be accepted by us.
- Remember, no one ever got into trouble unless they first agreed to accept an invitation that led them down a destructive path.
2. Involve – This friend will try to convince you that you can just “come” but you don’t have to “participate.”
- We just want you to be with the rest of us.
- Proverbs 1:11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause. (notice the phrase “let us”).
- Proverbs 1:12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:
- The “catch” comes when you are in the “wrong place” with the “wrong people” you will be greatly tempted to do the “wrong thing.”
3. Entangle – Now that you are “with us” you need to become “one of us.”
- Proverbs 1:13 We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:
- Proverbs 1:14 Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:
- The sliding progression taking place here is a person who wanted to fit in and the person who wanted to be accepted is now in a very bad situation because he or she yielded to the influence of a bad friend.
- So what is the answer to overcoming the influence of a bad friend?
- Never accept an invitation from a friend that will compromise what you truly believe. Be strong in the Lord. Let God’s approval of you override the approval of your friends.
Proverbs 1:15-16 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
Ken Turner
High Impact Teens
www.kenturnerministries.org
