When we become children of God through our faith in the Lord Jesus, we received a new nature or self from God. In this new nature that we have, we are no longer under the power of sin. We can now say "no" to sin. However, before we received our new nature or self, we were under the power of sin, and sin is controlling our minds and hearts. This is the reason as believers, we need to choose who we hang out with because unbelieving friends think differently than us. If we are going to walk with people that do not believe in God and do things that are not pleasing to God, they will eventually influence us and do the same things that they are doing.
As Umberto hang out with his bad friends at his school, he started to experiment with drugs. One of his friends brought marijuana for everyone to try. When Umberto saw the marijuana, he felt very strange. There was something in him that was telling him not to smoke. Umberto didn't realize that the Holy Spirit was telling him that drugs were harmful to him. However, his friends kept on insisting on trying to convince him to smoke. Because of peer pressure, he gave in. While all these things were happening, his mother, who was taking care of his little sister at their apartment, was praying for Umberto. His mother was continually praying for Umberto that God would protect him and that he would come back to the Lord.
Since Umberto kept on hanging out with his bad friends, he started becoming like his friends. He began doing drugs, which led him to more troubles in his life and his parents. God wants us to be wise. If we want to walk in God's way, we need to hang out with people who walk with God. Let us not be deceived, thinking that we will not be like our ungodly friends if we keep on walking with them. Eventually, we will do things that they are doing if we are not careful.
Ask yourself these questions: why does God want us to hang out with people that have the heart for God? What is the danger of hanging out with unbelievers?
Write down the problems that you are facing today and lift them up to God.
Prayer:
Father in Heaven, thank you for giving me a new nature that is no longer under the slave of sin. Please help me to be careful about who I hang out with. Please help me to pursue godly friends, and help me to be a godly friend or good influence on others. Please help to always listen to godly advice. May you help me now with my (mention your prayer requests). In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.