Let me hit you with a heavy question. Are you a friend of God or a foe of God?

Almost everybody I’ve ever met would say, “I’m a friend of God.” But here’s the follow-up question that help us determine if we are really a friend of God:  are you a friend of the world? You see, you can’t be both a friend of God and a friend of the world because the Holy Spirit says in James 4, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

Now, to be clear, being a friend of the world doesn’t mean having nonChristian friends. We can and should have friends in the world who are not followers of Jesus. No, being a friend of the world is appreciating or even embracing worldly thinking. Being a friend of the world is finding your hope and joy in the things of this world. Being a friend of the world is letting the world influence you instead of you influencing it. Being a friend of the world is finding yourself following the world instead of following God.

So, you can’t be a friend of the world and a friend of God. They are in opposition to one another. You will either love the first and hate the second, or you will hate the first and love the second.

Beloved, God calls you to reject the world, its desires, its hopes, its thinking. And then you will truly be a friend of God. May God give us the grace to do so!

Change begins in you!