Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Deuteronomy chapter 13, verses 6 through 8,

if your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter,

or the wife you embrace, or your friend, who is as your own soul,

entices you secretly, saying, let us go and serve other gods, which neither

you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether

near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other. You shall not yield to him,

or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him.

Wow, what a warning this is. God, speaking about the power of close friendships, even family relationships, to either spur us on toward God and

serving and worshiping and loving God, or to pull us away from serving and loving and

worshiping God. And this is part of God's design for close friendships.

Think about places like Hebrews 10, 24, and 25, where we see this picture of gathering closely with other brothers and sisters in Christ to spur one another on toward love

and good works, to encourage one another in faith.

Proverbs says, as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another, God has designed

our closest relationships to help us draw closer to him. But the warning here in Deuteronomy 13 is that

it's possible for those close relationships, people who are as close as your own soul, it's possible for those

people to entice you in a way that pulls you away from intimacy with God, to lead you to serve

other gods. And all of this just shouts, guard your closest relationships.

There are so many different ways, Deuteronomy 13, verses 6 through 8 lead us to pray.

Oh God, we pray first and foremost for our own lives as sons and daughters and brothers and sisters or wives or husbands as friends. God, we pray you would help us

never to entice those we're closest to or anybody else, but especially those were closest to

in these ways to pull away from you. God, we pray that our lives today would spur the people who are closest to us on towards you, that we

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