Surround Yourself
With whom do you surround yourself?
You know the verse As for me and my house we will serve the Lord? Let's switch it up a bit...
As for me and my house we will surround ourselves with:
the presence of the Lord, with excellent teachings on the truth from God's Word,
with the Body of Believers who will sing praise with us, love us, and encourage us to grow in our faith and service to the Lord,
and with a close counsel of friends who will be accountability partners, prayer partners and dancing in joy partners!
Take a friendship evaluation quiz. Outside of your family, consider the people with whom you spend the greatest amount of time. What does that fellowship look like? Does the interaction with these individuals bring your closer to the Lord, encourage you to be more Christlike, challenge you to increase Your knowledge of God's Word, leave you feeling peaceful, and afford you and opportunity to pray or be prayed for?
Who we invest ourselves in definitely rubs off from their exterior into our interior!
"Oh, but I don't work in a Christian environment," you say. My guess is God has a prayer partner for you somewhere in that work environment. Have you prayed and asked him to bring such a person to the surface? There could be a neighbor, you have never approached, who would love to gather around God's Word one day a week over a cup of coffee. There could be a mom in that carpool line who would exchange a daily devotional with you over email each week and then meet you at the park with the kids to discuss it. There may be a Bible study opportunity waiting right around the corner that will equip you for life's hurdles in a way you never thought possible.
Choose this day with whom you will surround yourself.
Choose people who draw you into the Presence of the Lord and cause you to be more like Christ.
Do you see what this means-all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running-and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed-that exhilarating finish in and with God-he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
Hebrews 12:1-3
Those who trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people. Psalm 125:1-2
