“Keep company with the wise and you will become wise. If you make friends with stupid people, you will be ruined” - Prov 13:20 (NIV)
On a good day yesterday another young Ugandan, Jacob Kiplom, won the half Marathon in record time at the 2020 World Athletic championship meet in Poland. A Kenyan, Peres Kipchirchir, broke her record in women’s half marathon. Few question that for these athletes to be successful they must be inspired by positive thoughts to train and condition their bodies for success.
But there is also a danger they must guard from. All athletes at an international level regularly undergo drug test. Between 2004 and 2018, 318 Kenyan athletes were caught by the World Anti Doping Agency to have violated drug laws as they tested positive. The American cyclist Lance Armstrong confessed in 2013 for using performance-enhancing drugs. He was stripped of his seven titles as Tour de France champion. One report has found 14 of the 25 recent winners of Tour de France race were caught doping ultimately ruining their careers.
No one can dispute that these athletes are talented but very often there are influenced by bad company that sows dark seeds into their minds. Pretending to have their interest at best such convince them that by taking those performance-enhancing drugs they would do far better. In a tough competitive industry and eager for success and world acclaim some fall astray. The results have been disastrous. Several athletes, like the American sprinter, Marion Jones, have later upon being caught been stripped of all their medals.
Just as these great athletes open themselves to bad advice that eventually ruins their careers, believers can too easily fall prey to evil thoughts. This often starts with the company around them. “The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (Gen 3:12). Like Adam, many have since fallen because they listened to bad advice, that seemed to promise a rosy and bright future, only to bring ruin.
It is for this reason why Christians are warned to be careful of the company they keep. This is for their own good. “Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good characters” (I Cor 15:33).
Prayer for today: Lord Father God of creation, heaven and earth, I pray you help me find good company that inspires me with good and holy thoughts that lead me into righteousness!
Related upcoming events
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19/04/2024 - 20/04/2024 All day“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19).
Just before fire was unleashed down on Sodom and Gommorah, Lot was told to pack up with his wife and two daughters and leave their homestead. Now, once out of danger, “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” ( Gen 19:26). Perhaps here we might pause and ask why she was bothered to look back.
Of course it could have been that old “curiosity killed a cat” mistake! Yet, it could also have been Lot’s wife was not sure where she was going and longed for her old life back. This is a common error. There was nothing stirring to look back. Just before Lot’s neighbors had attacked his house eager to rape his visitors. “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” ( vv 5). Was there anything worth looking back to!
The case of Lot’s wife could be anyone else’s experience. The Lord has plucked you out of some mess. You have been delivered to a new life. Yet, somehow you decide to look back, as though there was anything good and worth longing for. Sometimes it is a bitter past you have been delivered from. Other than rejoice in your new blessings you keep being drawn back!
A wise caution goes, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly” ( Proverbs 26:11). If the Lord has just led you out of a certain mess why look back like it was much better! Instead look ahead, for “he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” ( vv 17- 18).
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I thank you for delivering me from the darkness of the past and I look forward to a bright new future in you, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
