How to Find the Right Friends

Posted June 7, 2021

Friendships are important, but how do you know if you have the right friends? Are you surrounding yourself with the right people? How can you find the right friends?

Find Friends Who Push You Toward God.

Your friends should be encouraging you in your walk with God. Are they actively living out their faith? Do they represent Christ in their actions, or is it all talk? Godly friends are so important!

When you have godly friends, they will keep you on track. You’ll have the same vision and purpose in life. Friends should encourage you to accomplish the plan God has for you. A good friend will recognize the destiny God has for you and encourage you to pursue it! They won’t hold you back or distract you from following God.

Recognize Satan’s Lies.

We all have good days and tough ones. Falling into doubt is a slippery slope. When things are going well, it’s easy to trust God’s plan and His promises. But when things start to slip and life gets messy, Satan will start talking. He will convince you that God’s way isn’t best, it’s not for you, that God will abandon you, or that He doesn’t really have a good plan for you. These are all lies! But how we react to them is critical to our destinies.

When Satan lies to us, we can call out his lies or we can start to believe them. If we start to fall for his lies, we need good friends who will speak the truth to us! A good friend will recognize the lies and remind you of what God says.

If You Need Encouragement about God’s Plan for Your Life, Check Out These Verses:

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, NIV).
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5, NIV).
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV).
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV).
“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6, NIV).
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10, NIV).
“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21, NIV).

Don’t let friends be what keeps you from your destiny! God has a fantastic plan for your life, and I promise you don’t want to miss out on it! Unfortunately, some friends inevitably choose a different path than the one God has. They may have other priorities in life, focus on the wrong things, or give up on God. It’s hard to let friends go, but if they are pulling you away from God, it’s best to distance yourself from their influence. You don’t want to end up in a mess because they decided to walk away from God.

We are ultimately responsible for who we are friends with. Nobody is forcing you to stay in a toxic friendship. Nobody is forcing you to choose godly friends either! Life is about the decisions you make. And when you choose to follow God and the guide He set out for us in His Word, your life will yield the best results.

A friend, a true friend, is going to help you stay on God’s path for you. They aren’t going to put you in a position where it’s either them or God; they will always encourage you to keep pursuing the assignment.

Let The Bible Be Your Guide.

Life is hard. It’s full of ups and downs, good days and tough ones. But God didn’t just throw us in this world with no direction. He gave us His Word, the Bible, to set the foundation for how we should live.

We all mess up from time to time. Nobody is perfect! We all have made mistakes and have things to work on. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to live the best we can. God lays out the best way to live in His Word! His rules are to protect us, not to hold us back from something or to punish us.

When we live God’s way, we will always reach the best possible outcome. We all make mistakes, and that’s okay! When we mess up, there is always grace and forgiveness in Christ. Don’t let the enemy’s lies keep you from getting back on the right path. God is a good Father; when His children fall or make a wrong turn, He is ready to help them up and redirect their paths.

Find friends who are pushing you toward God. Don’t underestimate the influence and importance of your friends!

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To learn more about godly friends, read my The Importance of Godly Friendships blog HERE.