Being a good friend, and investing in the friendship, doesn’t necessarily mean that the friendship will never be challenging or that you will always agree on everything. Sometimes we can see our friends going down the wrong path, at other times they may even try and make us go down those paths too. Being a good friend doesn’t mean we have to support our friends in every decision they make. When that decision is harmful to them, or to us, we can speak up and tell them, in a sensitive way, that they need to reconsider what they’re choosing to do. We need to be brave enough to stand up for what we believe in. We shouldn’t follow the path they choose just because we want to keep the peace in the friendship or because we’re worried that the friendship may fall apart if we don’t. People-pleasing and peer pressure are things that aren’t helpful in building good friendships. If we’re strong in our faith and our identity, we’ll be able to be truthful, honest and constructive in our friendships. Being close friends with someone gives us the opportunity to speak God’s truth and wisdom into their lives, and they can do the same for us. The Bible says: ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another’ (Proverbs 27:17 NIV). So not only do we need to be open to standing up for what’s right, we also need to be prepared to accept those times when our friends need to tell us what’s right too. When we’ve got wise, godly friends, we’ll become wiser ourselves. ‘Spend time with the wise and you will become wise, but the friends of fools will suffer.’

What Now?
Do you have a friend who’s heading down the wrong path? Ask God for an opportunity this week to speak His truth and wisdom into their lives.