Much of my teenage years were spent trying to be someone that I wasn’t. I wanted so badly to be liked, that I often acted differently based on who I was around to gain respect from others. Sometimes it meant hiding my Christianity, other times, it was being quiet to not draw attention to myself.

But regardless of how hard I tried to get people to like me, I always fell short. I was never happy and often I felt conflicted that I wasn’t being genuine with the people around me.

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices – Colossians 3:9 (NIV)

One of the best things you can do if you want good and lasting friendships is to be genuine. Hiding who you are or faking like you’re someone else won’t gain respect from others in the long run.

Be who you are. Be who God created you to be. Don’t hide your faith, hoping to gain popularity. Instead, if you’ll simply be genuine and real about your faith, you’ll find that more people respect you in the long run.

Pride goes before destruction,
    a haughty spirit before a fall. – Proverbs 16:18 (NIV)

It’s easy to think that being popular equals success. You might think, the more friends you have, the better things will be for you. And while being friendly and having friends is a good thing, popularity isn’t the same as success.

Success in life comes from knowing Jesus and following His plan and purpose for your life. Anything else won’t bring you true happiness.

So today, focus on knowing Jesus. Spend time praying, reading your Bible, and finding out what Jesus has to say about things. As you know Jesus more, success will come. But success will never be lasting or fulfilling if it’s based only on popularity. Rather, base your happiness and worth on what Jesus says about you. Know that you’re loved and treasured by Him. So no matter whether you have lots of friends or just a few, it doesn’t matter because your worth is found in Jesus, not others.

It can be easy to think that with friendships having more of them is better than less. And that makes sense why we’d think that. If you’re on YouTube, having more subscribers is better. Our society celebrates more friends, followers, or subscribers.

The truth is that more isn’t always better when it comes to true friendships. Sometimes, choosing a couple of godly friends that push you to love God more is better than lots of friendships that distract you from Jesus.

So today, decide to pursue godly relationships with people that push you to know Jesus more.

So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. – 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NLT)

More isn’t always better when it comes to friendships. Decide to look for friends that encourage you and build you up. And focus on being that kind of friend to others too.

If you don’t have any friends that push you toward Jesus right now, ask God for His help in finding them. If you’re open, he might show you to join a youth group, or a Bible study and meet some friends that are excited about God and help build you up.

Have you ever thought if you could just have more friends, then you’d be happier? I know I have many times. I always wanted to make everyone happy and laugh and make just as many friends as I could. And while we shouldn’t go out of our way to be mean or unfriendly to others, the idea that more friends mean you’ll be happier isn’t true.

The thing is, even if we get more friends, we wouldn’t be truly happy.

Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing. – Psalm 34:10 (NLT)

True happiness is found in knowing Jesus. Anything short of knowing Him, won’t bring happiness that lasts. So while you should be nice to others and want to be friends with others, making friendships the whole purpose of your life will leave you unfulfilled.

Determine today to put proper boundaries on your relationships. Yes, friendships are good and important, but they aren’t meant to be your source of happiness. Friends can come and friends can go. Friends can let you down. God, won’t leave you or let you down. So go to Him to be your source of happiness and fulfillment today.

Have you ever thought about who your closest friends are? Not their names necessarily, but who are they? Are they people that are known for getting in trouble? Or are they people that push you to do good?

Your friends matter because they hold you accountable. Not in a formal kind of way, but your friends can help determine the choices you make. I know that I’ve made some poor decisions at times because of what my friends were doing.

Your friends can push you toward making good choices or they can push you toward making bad ones.

The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. – Proverbs 12:26 (NIV)

So if you haven’t put any thought into who your friends are, you might consider doing what today’s verse says. Choose your friends carefully. Make sure they are people who are pushing you to make good choices and to follow after God and the Bible.

Today’s Truth: Choose your friends wisely.

If your friends aren’t good ones, ask God for help. He will show you ways that you can make new friends. Don’t be afraid to get His advice in prayer on your friendships, He will help show you how to make good decisions with your friends.

Have you ever felt silly for believing in God? Maybe many of your friends have nothing to do with God, or it seems like when watching TV that no one really accounts for God in your life. And so you feel a little silly to believe in Him yourself.

And while the media and your friends might make you feel that way, the truth is, it really does make a lot of sense to believe in God.

They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts. The way their minds judge them proves this fact. Sometimes their thoughts find them guilty. At other times their thoughts find them not guilty. – Romans 2:15 (NIRV)

Today’s verse shows us that we all have a sense of right and wrong that is written in our hearts. Why is that? I believe it’s because deep down, people know instinctively there is a God.

Have you ever thought about how without God, there could be no right or wrong? For example, if we simply evolved, then why do we as humans abide by laws of morality? If we are evolved animals, then why should we just not kill each other as many other animals do? But if there’s a God and a creator, then it makes sense that we should abide by the laws of morality. Because God as the creator has told us in the Bible that human life has value.

This is just one of many examples of why faith in God makes sense. You shouldn’t feel bad for believing in God. God is the reason why we have morality in the first place. So don’t lose heart. Stand up for what you believe and know that faith in God makes sense.

I’ve always wondered why people would read through the Bible. It’s such a big book, and I really figured, why not skip the boring parts, right? Then last year, everything changed for me. While I didn’t get through the entire Bible, I started in Genesis and began reading it, not skipping anything.

It was awesome! I realized there were so many good parts that I had been skipping over, simply because I didn’t want to put in the effort or thought they were boring.

I got a lot out of reading parts of the Bible I hadn’t read before. And the same might be true for you too. Perhaps you haven’t read sections of the Bible. Maybe because they didn’t interest you, or perhaps for some other reason.

Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions. – Psalm 119:18 (NLT)

Challenge yourself to get into the Bible this year. Read it. Even the parts you normally would skip. You’ll be amazed how you grow in your knowledge of God and in your relationship with Him.

And if you feel like you won’t understand it, ask God for His help. Like today’s verse says, ask Him to open your eyes to see the wonderful truths in the Bible. There’s no doubt about it, the Bible will help you grow!

Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. – Proverbs 3:6 (NLT)

Some decisions you make in life really don’t have that much weight. What you eat for lunch, whether you wear your black or brown shoes, or which social media account to check first, are examples of those types of things. However, some decisions you make in life can make a huge difference. Examples of these would be where you go to college, or who you marry. These decisions make a lot bigger impact on the course your life takes.

These big decisions can be really hard to make. You might feel uncertain or unsure if you’re making the right decision. However, if you follow what today’s Bible verse talks about, you can know that you’re making the right decision. The first step in making the right decision is to start seeking God in everything you do.

Today’s Truth: The first step in making good decisions is to start seeking God in everything you do. 

When you get up, take a moment to thank God for your day. When you get ready for the day, talk to God and ask His help. When you eat lunch take a second to thank God for the food you have to eat. In the moments you have during the day, take time out to include God. Seek Him and His will in all you do. When you do this, you’ll not have such difficulty making the bigger decisions. Seeking God in the small things always pays off.

I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. – Gal 2:21 (NLT)

As a kid I never could understand why my mom got so excited about an old set of Nancy Drew books she had. She wanted me to look at them and read them. The books smelled musty and old, the pictures were outdated and honestly, I really wanted nothing to do with them. However, to my mom, they were valuable because she had one of the first sets ever printed. To me, they were meaningless because I didn’t understand the value of owning original copies of the books.

A lot of the time, we treat the grace of God the same way. We haven’t taken time to find out it’s value in our lives and so it becomes meaningless to us.

Jesus came to the earth to take away our sins and to make us right with God. If our sins could be removed by following the Old Testament law, or doing good works, then there was no need for Jesus to come. What Jesus did was given to us freely. We didn’t have to earn it, we simply have to believe in Jesus. The grace of God isn’t based on what we can do, but rather in what Jesus has already done.

Today’s Truth: God’s grace isn’t based on what we do, but rather what Jesus has already done.

This should free us up to love God more and devote our lives in a deeper way to Jesus. Don’t let what Jesus did become meaningless in your life. Choose to spend some time thinking about God’s grace today!