Essential Faith: Spiritually Surviving the Second WaveSample

Essential wisdom

“Show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.”

My childhood pastor repeated that line more times than Paul used the word grace. It was a snippet of wisdom that my pastor wanted to scratch into our hearts like a couple engraving their initials on an old oak tree.

These days, as the coronavirus wears on, my pastor’s 25-year-old wisdom pops into my mind in a different phrase—Attitude is infectious.

Show me the hour-a-day social media scroll where politics and public health explode into accusations, assumptions, and angry outbursts; and I’ll show you a frazzled child of God. Show me the group of friends who are one-sided, black-and-white, it’s “their” fault; and I’ll show you a Christian who has lost his or her love for the others in “one another.”

But show me an inner circle who is quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, and I’ll show you a humble saint who refuses to jump to conclusions. Show me a believer surrounded by promise-repeating brothers and God-exalting sisters, and I’ll show you a Christian with uncommon peace.

If my pastor was right, the voices you listen to today will shape the way you feel tonight. So ask yourself some honest questions—“Whose voices did I hear the most this week (news anchors, social media influencers, friends, etc.)?” “How did those voices line up with the truth and wisdom of God’s Word?”

I’m not much of a gambling man, but I would bet my Bible that the attitude of those voices was as contagious as COVID. We all would like to assume that we are fairly independent, value-driven people. But the world around us, especially our inner circles, are more influential than we admit.

No wonder the timeless proverb says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). What gets into your heart ends up coming out of it. So guard your inner circle. Curate the list of whom you will listen to. Everything you do flows from what you allow inside, and few things get inside of us more quickly than the words of those we trust.

Maybe this pandemic is the right time to become BFFs with the book of Proverbs. If you don’t have a devotional plan lined up after this one, let Proverbs into your heart like a wise friend who joins you for breakfast. Let its wisdom soak into your soul and flow out of you throughout the day. Let its encouragements about patience, harsh words, and gentle replies shape you into the image of Christ.

Even better, invite a few friends to join you on that journey. Start your days with a common chapter, and end your evenings with a shared comment about how the proverbs intersected with your waking hours. Allow God’s Word to be the filter that determines how you judge the world around you, bouncing every well-marketed lie before it gets into your heart and inviting every Christ-like thought that is filled with grace and truth.

What the world needs now is not just love. It needs wisdom. 

Guard your heart so it is only filled with God’s grace and truth. Then unleash that heart on our broken world.