Philippians 3:8 - Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.
No matter what we have in our lives, or who we have in our lives, it pales in comparison to the importance of having Christ in our lives.
How often do we hold onto someone, or something, too long while they bring us down? These people succeed in bringing us down the rabbit hole and further away from Christ because we allow it to happen. We think, "Well if I pray harder for them, they will change." Yes, we should pray for them, but that doesn't mean we should do it while we're going for a ride that's taking us down a dark hole and away from Christ.
When I first started to really focus on my relationship with Christ about five years ago, I had a couple of really close friends. The three of us were friends for over 25 years, and we grew up together. When Christ started to change my heart and attitude towards Him and away from the activities that we were doing, they didn't like it and they started to treat me differently. There was never any conversations about it specifically where they threatened to walk away if I didn't walk away from Christ and resume our normal activities. They just walked away. Do I miss those guys? To a degree, yes. We shared a lot of memories in those 25+ years, some good and some bad.
When I think about them from time to time, I remember Paul's words to the Corinthians. He said, "When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things" (1 Corinthians 13:11). While we are called to have faith like a child, that doesn't mean we are to act like a child. There is a time when we have to grow up, and take responsibility for our lives, and our faith. I could have easily walked away from my relationship with Christ, and stayed with the comfortability that I had for all those years. But I really felt the Holy Spirit nudging me in another direction. Sure I miss the guys from time to time, but I learned it was more important to hold on to them loosely, and hold on to Jesus tightly.
Dear Abba Father, thank You for showing me the right path for my life. Thank You for showing me a glimpse of the plans You have for me, and nudging me away from the dead end path I was on. I pray for the people in my old life that I don't hear or see anymore. My prayer is that they will feel Your nudging at their heart, and let You in. I also pray for those that are struggling to let go of the easy (comfortable) life they are accustomed to. My prayer is that they will finally see that it is indeed dragging them down and away from You, and that they will finally let go of it, and grab hold of You. In Jesus' name, Amen!
God Bless!!!
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