Are Your Friends a Bad Influence?

Michael was a 17 year old boy who had ridden a church bus almost every Sunday for several years during his childhood and into his teen years. There were several people who had invested a lot of time and prayer into Michael’s life. At one point during his years of riding the bus, he made a confession of faith. If you talked to Michael, he could tell you about the day that he asked Christ to save him.

During the summer of 2003, I got to know this young man while I was home for summer break from college. He and my brother attended the youth revival at my home church that summer. When I saw them together at the revival meetings, I made the connection that they knew each other. I made a specific effort to invest time and love in my brother and in his friends. I spent a lot of time talking and listening to them trying to lead them closer toward the things of the Lord.

Back to college I went and as far as I knew Michael was still riding the bus. My brother, Brandon, had had enough of the church after the youth revival and had gone back to only occasionally attending church. My brother and Michael continued to influence one another to discontinue living for God. The two of them eventually backslid completely.

I’ll not forget the day that my mom called me at college to tell me that Michael was dead. He had been reported missing a few days before when he didn’t return home to his father’s house. His dad found him a few days later along the side of the road. Michael had been strangled to death and then stabbed over fifty times with a six inch deep knife.

I was saddened and burdened for my bus kids that I had currently in Chicago. Would I be able to make a bigger difference in their lives then I had in Michael’s? Then I thought of a verse that had helped me choose the right kind of friends: “But Amnon had a friend.” ~ 2 Samuel 13:3

Amnon ended up destroying his life and the life's of several people around him as a result of the influence of a bad friend. Michael was a boy that had attended church and knew right from wrong and yet he made the wrong choice. He decided to let his friends in the world lead him away from the things of God. Michael chose the wrong friends. He allowed his friends to influence him into a life that was sinful.

You may have friends that are Christians and you may think that you have nothing to worry about. You go to the same church, your parents have the same standards, you are all saved and the list can go on. These friends can lead you astray or may lead you in a direction that is not pleasing to the Lord. You are not exempt from peer pressure no matter how old you are.

“You are right now or soon shall be exactly what your friends are!”

The decision to do right and live for the Lord isn’t easy and you may not have a lot of friends when you are done. You may even have to cut off someone that was near and dear to you when you see them heading into a life of sin. I speak from experience when I say that it’s not easy to break off a friendship. However you will have a testimony of someone who loved and served the Lord instead of being known as someone who was once on fire and allowed the wrong friends to lead them astray. You have a decision that you have to make. Are you going to be like you friends that are doing wrong or are you going to live for the Lord?


Serving the Master,

Diane