God made friends because they’re a good thing: friends turn us outwards to focus on people other than ourselves, and friends boost us beyond what we could be on our own. So it’s obvious that the enemy would jump to attack them, right where they should be giving us strength. Look where he attacks and you’ll see what he’s out to sabotage. Take gossip: gossip is basically whenever we talk behind our friends’ backs in a way that cuts them down. The only time God wants us to talk about our friends is when we’re talking to Him in prayer about them. When He gives us an encouraging word to share with them and build them up, we’re defeating gossip by living its opposite. Take living in the past. Friendships sometimes get stuck on living in the past, repeating old stories, and relating to each other like they used to do years ago. God’s design for your friendship is that you’d build each other up and onwards (1 Thessalonians 5:11). When you call out who your friends are becoming in God, you’re pointing your friendships towards the future. Or take picking up bad habits. You know how it happens, right? Spend enough time round your friends and you start sounding like them, even start thinking like them. God’s designed friendships to work by picking up good habits off each other (Romans 1:12). When your friends get into your head - in a good way - you start meditating on the good of God more, and you start living it out more.

What Now?
If you don’t already have a friend who you regularly pray with, encourage and are accountable to - find one. Then spend some time chatting about what you’re facing at the moment and praying for each other.