A Fight Among Friends

Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you.” (Proverbs 2:11)

I made a friend. Seems we’ve known each other all my life. She speaks my heart language—at least one of them. She encourages me to do things that bring me comfort, and she provides me with bursts of confidence to tune out other voices and just go for what I want. When I’m with her, I feel invincible, and she makes me forget the unpleasant challenges I face.

The only problem is that she poisons my walk with God.

Her name is Compromise, and she’s not my friend at all. She tells me what I want to hear instead of what I need to hear. We’ve been friends all my life, but she only comes around when I’m at my weakest. She speaks the soothing, familiar language of my first love (ME) and drowns out the voice of my other First Love sometimes demoted to second place. Her voice speaks only of pleasure, and her skill at rationalizing is epic. When I’m with her, I lose track of time and hardly notice the decay. Life with her is exciting until it’s time to pay the consequences.

How do I win the battle with Compromise? I can’t handle her by myself. No, she’s too skilled a liar, and I must call in reinforcements: Discernment and Truth. They are a powerful tag-team! Discernment knocks out the lying teeth of Compromise revealing the deception I can’t see on the surface. She saves lots of heartache if I give her a chance. Then comes Truth. She tells it like it is but Compromise, though toothless, still wants to argue. No matter! The voice of God rings louder and clearer, calling my name and reminding me this fight was fixed at Calvary; I need only collect the winnings by choosing to obey what is right.

This fight is not easy, but with the help of Discernment and Truth, we are more than winners. Here’s to giving Compromise, our not-a-friend friend, a daily black eye!