Hope-Filled Christian
Hope-Filled Christian
Shaping our Spiritual Journey: The Value of Positive Peer Pressure
Ever wondered why, despite regularly reading the Bible, you still feel like you're missing a piece of the puzzle? Well, you're not alone. In this enlightening episode, we unpack the transformative power of being surrounded by godly and wise individuals. Using scriptures from Proverbs 13:20 and Matthew 23:19, we delve into how these relationships can propel your spiritual growth and deepen your understanding of the Bible. Prepare to learn about the constructive effect of positive peer pressure and how the Holy Spirit plays a pivotal role in your comprehension of God's word.
In the second part of our conversation, we turn our focus to the significance of cultivating God-centered relationships. Ever noticed how spending time with people who love God above everything else influences your own love? It's not by chance! This episode will unravel why these relationships are key in drawing us closer to God and maintaining spiritual focus. We share our personal experiences, scripture exploration, and ultimately demonstrate why understanding the Bible isn't just about reading - it's about nurturing a relationship with God and the Holy Spirit. Sit back, grab your headphones, and get ready for an episode that will inspire a radical shift in your spiritual journey.
Hi and welcome back to HFC. A little weird, because I don't think I've ever really had this happen where I have two verses on my mind and I'm really not sure which one I'm going to choose. But I know which one would bother me the most to talk about, in the sense that I feel like it's more self-confrontational and so I feel like maybe that's the one I want to talk about. That verse is Proverbs 13, verse 20. It says Spend time with a wise and you will become wise. I don't always feel like there's a need to compare things to the world and stuff, but I just kind of like it when you realize the world is just taking kind of hints from what the Bible said.
Speaker 1:When I think of this, when I think of you know sayings like tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are, or other sayings like if you hang out with strays, you'll get fleas. I don't really know that one off the top of my head, to be honest. I just know it's something like that. I'm just basically essentially saying that, based off of who you're around, you're going to become more and more like them, and that's true in the spiritual sense and in the you know worldly sense, even just aspirations, drives. If you're around people who are constantly giving you excuses to not do something, you're not going to be as driven. I mean, you might still have that personal drive that's within you, but it's not going to be as strong as it could be Because, instead of having someone encourage whatever is already in you, like a drive or motivation or you know the Holy Spirit, they're constantly giving you excuses to not do it. And the verse that I think of when it comes to that is you know I know we just covered it, so I'm kind of sad that I don't remember it, but I'm working on that and I'll talk about that later About the spirit being the flesh is weak but the spirit is willing. And I think about that and I think about well, what can we do to help the spirit? And it kind of goes in line with this spend time with wise and you will become wise. But for spending time with people who are more God driven and God focused, then that's how we become more God driven and God focused ourselves. And we have people, are encouraging us to do the things that we know that we should be doing. It's kind of like a way making peer pressure work for us.
Speaker 1:Because there are situations where, if you're in a situation, it almost becomes impossible to do something, because you begin to think, oh well, what will so, and so think, what will so and so think over there, and honestly that still happens in Christianity, because there are times where it's like, well, I should go up to the altar, but what will that person think? But I honestly think, if you begin to surround yourself with like-minded people, realizing that we all are needing the altar, we all are not deserving or worthy of the altar, but we all should, we should all be sacrificing ourselves, we should all be living sacrifices. What I meant to say and there's a verse that I actually love, I just don't remember the exact words, but it basically, I think it's Matthew, chapter 23. I want to say 19. Basically, essentially saying who is greater, the sacrifice or the altar? That must be the altar, because before the altar, the sacrifice is nothing but the altar. We keep holy the altar. We know that's like, ooh, I can't go up with a heart mindset. I can't go up there. I'm not, you know, in the right mindset, I'm not perfect enough, I'm not whatever. We know that we associate the altar with cleanliness and sanctification, and yet we have this weird thought that, like you know, I can't go up there because I'm not sanctified, when in reality, it's the altar that makes you sanctified. You're not going to become sanctified no matter what. There's no sanctification through and of yourself. That's only by becoming a living sacrifice. You are sanctified through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:And so having just people that will share stuff like that with you, having people who will have the right understanding of God and I feel like people tend to look at the word and say, well, the word should tell you what God is and isn't. But what is it? What is it? What is it? What is it? What is it? What's it on? So it's John 16, 12, 3, 15. It's not even a verse that I had planned to share. It just happens to be a verse that I have on my phone. It says I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. Therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you, and so I feel like the people who believe that you can just read the Bible and be good are mistaken.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying that we should all interpret the Bible in our own way, but when you have the Holy Spirit and you have the Bible, it's like a two-parter. You need that, the Holy Spirit and the Bible, but you also need worship, and there's so many aspects, more aspects to it than just to say you know, god, is this a relationship with God? Is this? It's so much more complex and we try to simplify it all the time, but we need to both have a relationship with God and, you know, have the Holy Spirit to understand that word. Because of the Holy Spirit, there is no understanding. We are just having like a very literal understanding of what the word is saying. It is the Holy Spirit that speaks to us.
Speaker 1:Anyway, like I said, I just I have trouble thinking about this. First, because I have kind of asked before like God, why do I struggle to do this so much, god? Why do I struggle to do that so much and it's like you know, it's like he's shared with me and I've just kind of ignored it, but the reason being is because I don't surround myself. I mean, I do, but I don't Like I'm not. We need to make more time to spend time with people who are Christian and God focused and God centered. And one thing that really kind of and this is kind of weird because it's not even necessarily talking to us but something that really stood out to me one time was when someone was talking about a relationship and they were saying you should never want someone who loves you more than anything. You should always want the person who loves God more than anything, because if they love God, then you'll know that they'll love you. Right, and I guess that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:When we're seeking friends and we're seeking wisdom, we know that in the Bible it says to love God, to fear God, is to be wise, and it's in this that we grow wiser. I don't know the actual verse, but I know that's a thing because I've been reading the All of God by Bavir I don't know his first name, I'm very forgetful lately, I don't know why, but anyway, just spending time with people who are God loving, god fearing, who put God first, because as we spend more time with them, we know that they're going to push us and guide us and give us advice that are going to cause us to lean towards God and away from God. We have to find people that are going to speak the right things into our life, not, when we're at our lowest, kind of pull us farther and farther away. We need people who, when we're at our lowest, no matter where we turn to, no matter who we ask, they're like you know what God would say, and in a nice way, because we all know how annoyingly frustrating it is when someone's like God wouldn't say that and they kind of like I don't know, sometimes it's just us.
Speaker 1:But just having good friends, good relationships, with people being close and in a community and a group that's going to lead you towards God is going to keep you wise and help you build that wisdom and, in turn, also someone that you can pour wisdom into, someone that's going to share and speak to you and share verses or things like that People are going to keep you on that narrow path instead of pull you off every chance they can get because they don't really see the importance of God. Anyway, that's it. Just spend more time with God. Spend more time with people who love God, people who put God first, not someone who loves you more than anything, but someone who loves God more than anything, because if they love God more than anything, they'll also love you in the right way, because they have that example of God's love. They have that example of loving God that you know how to love, because they've experienced the truest love. Anyway, as always, let's go ahead and end with a prayer Hear God, everything you help us to push past are comfortable with this. We all have our friends and our times and our things that we want to spend time with and things that we want to do, and that doesn't always necessarily correlate with spending time with people in church and volunteering in church and doing all these things in church.
Speaker 1:But it's really hard, as we embark on new relationships or even just continue to develop and grow a relationship that's already been developed, to focus more on you, to help us to locate and have the strength, allow us to focus on the willing spirit rather than the lean flesh that will push us towards developing more godly relationships, not necessarily a relationship with you, but a relationship also with people who will help us stay focused on you, helping us find people who put you first and not themselves or other people, and who are quick to not lash out at us and get on to us but aren't going to give your word, learn a loving way and a correcting way in keeping us on that narrow path, helping us to stay focused on you and not get off the path of fear or get confused or stray or give us an opportunity to get away from you. Help us to find people that love you, draw us to you and not just find. But what is the new situation where we will push towards that? Because it is not just finding people. There are probably people who reveal those people to us and also help us to build relationships with those people so that we can be closer to you and surround ourselves with people who are like-minded and who can come first with everyone. And in the name of Jesus. Oh wait, forget this first. It is not in some station, not in your chance.
Speaker 1:Hi, thanks for listening to this week's episode of HFC. I really hope you enjoyed it. I know it was short, but I feel like it's an important topic. We need to start building those relationships, building those networks, networks that are focused on God, finding a spot where God can exist, finding a spot where we can be free to show our love for God and build that kind of experience with loving God, so that way, when we go out into the world, it's easier to love God openly, because we've had practice doing it in these situations, building that experience. I hope that came across right. Anyway, have a great week. God bless you. Bye.