Good friends and following Christ

Good friends are a great help to the Christian life.

Apostle Paul to Timothy, his protege in 2 Timothy 2:22, instructs thus –
“Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with THEM that call on the Lord out of a pure heart” 

Youthful lusts are not limited to physical attraction. They include excessive desires for popularity, acceptance, worldly success, or academic achievement. 

The lusts that Paul warns us against are any of the short-sighted cravings of youth for personal pleasure or gain, rather than for personal godliness. Youthful lusts include any hunger or ambition that distracts from our pursuit of true righteousness, faith, charity, and peace.

Interestingly, Paul is not content with our fleeing youthful lusts; he commands us, alternatively, to pursue hard after (the word “follow” is very strong in the original language) a pure-hearted devotion to God. We will not experience the vibrant, joyful, fulfilling Christian life until we are not only trying to avoid sin but are also seeking after Christ.

And one of the greatest encouragements for people as they pursue Christ is to follow after him with those that call on the Lord themselves out of a pure heart. Good friends are a great help to the Christian life, and are especially crucial when you are young.

So, young people, remember to flee away from sinful temptations, follow after Christ as your Lord, and look for good friends who will pursue Christ with you.

I PLEDGE to be and remain a good friend to you as we progress in this journey of seeking after Christ for His fulness in our lives. I trust this is mutual.

May I add a piece from a daughter, Omolola, culled from her Blogsite “unpack for this journey”.

Waiting On The Lord by Omolola Oriogun

I left graduate school believing that very soon I would have a job, career, ministry… something that I would feel fulfilled in and gain experience from. I just believed everything will work out the way I’ve planned it. I believed that two years after working, I’d get married and start building my own home.

With my mentor in the car with me from an outing, we were talking about knowing what one is supposed to do with one’s life, and I asked her, “How do I know that where I am is exactly where I should be in life, and also, is it wrong, planning my own life?”

My mentor shared a piece of advice I would forget, only to remember it after I had to learn the hard way: “my dear,” she said, “when you pray, pray as to get to know the fullness of CHRIST. Prayer is about knowing our Father in heaven.”

A little taken aback at the seeming irrelevancy of the advice, I nodded my head and drove on. I have to remember this, I thought. OK, I told myself, I should pray to know the fullness CHRIST; OK, I have to do that… then I will know what GOD’s will is for me.

Years down the road after discouragement, angst, anger and frustration, I found myself still in the same place, still with no perspective future, unemployed, no husband and even more worried and restless than before.

I went into the compound of my parent’s house, sat on my car, having spent weeks in tears and confusion, feeling broken and overwhelmed. I felt as though I had somehow fallen into a deep ditch, and I could not even find any foothold to climb out. I had never felt so discouraged in my life. When looking at where I could be in five years or even five months, I could not even conjure up a small picture through the blackness that enveloped me.

Looking into the sky, I just sat. I did nothing.

And a question came to me: “My Daughter, what are you waiting for?”

That was easy. “For You, LORD.”

“My Daughter, what are you waiting for?”

Hmm. “For You, of course, LORD.”

“My Daughter, what are you waiting for?”

I began to feel like Apostle Peter, “Hmmm… for You, LORD!”

“Are you really?”

This question came softly, like a gentle hand that lifted up my chin to help me see more than my feet.

I asked myself the question again, “Am I really?” It dawned on me slowly and my mentor’s words came back to me: “When you pray, pray to know the fullness of CHRIST.”

Yes, I had been waiting for the LORD… but for HIM to come through for me with a job, a plan, a husband, anything that came up, just something other than waiting on the LORD.   “Waiting on the LORD” can become a cliché quite quickly, but I began to finally see what my mentor meant. I had an agenda each time I prayed. When I was tired of waiting on HIM for job, I went ahead to start my own business, got it registered and then, finances refused to show up. My prayers did not reveal a satisfaction in GOD but a dissatisfaction with HIM. I knew I could trust HIM, but I prayed as though my plans were wiser and better than HIS. I prayed as though I did not trust HIM.

As soon as I began to pray without an agenda, my inner anxieties began to dissolve. I relaxed about where I was and who I was.

My vision seemed uncannily clearer. I no longer prayed with the nonverbal ultimatum of “come through for me or else…” I arrived at a place of “being” instead of waiting. I became comfortable and comforted.

We often think that when we are waiting for someone for a date and the person is not showing up on time, then we are waiting doing nothing. “We have so transferred that attitude to waiting on GOD too.”

We believe that when we wait on the LORD for job, marriage, child or whatever it is we need, just sitting there so still, doing nothing to the problems on ground means we are ‘actually doing nothing.’ We even question GOD, “How is it that You’re delaying with all my prayers?, I can’t seem to get used to the idea of doing nothing.”

‘Well, there’s the problem right there, my friends. You’ve bought into the cultural myth that when you’re waiting on the LORD you’re doing nothing.’

My dears, ‘I hope you’ll hear what I’m about to tell you. I hope you’ll hear it all the way down to your toes. When you’re waiting on the LORD, you’re not doing nothing. You’re doing the most important something there is. You’re allowing your soul to grow up. If you can’t be still and wait, you can’t become what GOD created you to be.’

This is where GOD eventually called me after all those years: to a new perspective of becoming something out of seemingly nothing.

Here are some scriptures that will help you more as to ‘waiting on the LORD.’ They will show you GOD’s promises concerning waiting on HIM:
Psalms 27:14; Psalms 37:7-9; Isaiah 40:31; Psalms 37:34; Romans 10:13;  Psalms 25:4-5; Psalms 40:1-3; Psalms 25:5-9; Isaiah 8:17.

Friends, you can NEVER regret waiting on the LORD. HE is faithful to HIS word, I’ve found HIM to be true.

Today, I’ve got a good business. Before any business transaction, I pray. I obey GOD’s instruction concerning such transaction that I get in the place of waiting – Prayer. If HE tells me not to do that particular one, I don’t because, I’ve learnt so many lessons through my years of operating with GOD. I only do what HE tells me to do. It’s not easy but it is the BEST way to follow when dealing with GOD. Rest in HIM and HE’ll see you through it all.

The Liteman T