There is a story in 2 Kings that is rarely told in Sunday school. It was about King Ahab’s son Jehoram. In men’s eyes, Jehoram was a much-improved version of his father Ahab. After all, he got rid of the sacred pillar of Baal, an idol his father worshiped. However, in God’s eyes, he was still seen as evil the way he tolerated and encouraged wicked practices. Perhaps we can say it’s similar to a state legalizing gambling and the use of recreational marijuana.
One day, Jehoram ran into a bit of trouble. His dad Ahab had subdued the Moabites. As a result, the Moabite king was obligated to give hundreds and thousands of sheep and tons of wool as a tribute. After King Ahab died, the king of Moab thought that enough is enough – this expensive sheep giveaway program had got to stop. So he decided to fuss and rebel.
Jehoram quickly got his troops together as all commanders-in-chief would do. Yet he was sweating bullets. Suddenly, he remembered Uncle Jehoshaphat, his dad’s friend, and an ally. (You can read more about this story in my earlier post – Believing the Lies) Mustering up enough courage, he rang up Uncle and spoke in his nervous, squeaky voice, “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you fight with me against Moab?” (2 Kings 3:7)
Even after ten bad decisions and hundreds of indecisions, it might just take one good, smart move to get ourselves out of a jam. This smart move may involve getting in touch with the right people.
Dr. James O. Davis, the founder of Global Church Network, once said in a lecture,
I want to encourage you to make an assessment of your life. Make a list of the closest friends in your life, because that’s where you’re going to be five years from now… If there are some people in your sphere of influence, in your life, who are driving you off-course, or who have become an extreme distraction for you, you are going to find that you’re not going to be successful. If we spend time with the right people, in the right place, we will become the right person… As you move down this path of God’s divine providence and plan for your life, and the Lord begins to send people into your life, sooner or later you’re going to make what I call a “relationship exchange.”
You are going to decide that you’re making the exchange of what the Lord is giving you today, versus what you had in the past. It doesn’t mean that you burn your bridges. It doesn’t mean that you won’t ever associate with certain people with whom you spent time before. It is just that they’re not the encouraging people in your life. They are not the people who add value in your life.
Let me encourage it in a different way. Think about the main people in your life and ask yourself two questions. Is this person a deposit? Or is this person a withdrawal? If we spend more time with the people who make withdrawals than the people who make deposits, one day we’ll get up and we will be overdrawn. Nobody can live his or her life that way. We have to spend time with the right people.
We have to spend time with the right people.
King Jehoram later won the battle against the king of Moab with the help of King Jehoshaphat and another ally, King of Edom, who was a last-minute recruit. Jehoram exercised a “relationship exchange” and came out of the crisis unscathed. King Jehoshaphat’s close relationship with God led to an overflow of blessings spilling over to those that were with him, even those that were unworthy.
American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
Let us ask ourselves this question. Are we a deposit, or a withdrawal? Do we find ourselves alone and depressed? Do we find that there is a party out there but we are not in it? Chances are we might have become a withdrawal and a burden to the friends that are barely surviving.
We can find ways to deposit into the lives of others. Don’t say, “Let me know if you need anything.” That is one meaningless, clichéd pleasantry that I am guilty of using. Just do something, bring something, and plenty of it, whenever you get a chance to be a blessing.