Cutting Toxic People Off and Being Wholly Available to God – Purity 1862
Purity 1862 01/15/2026 Purity 1862 Audio Podcast
Purity 1862 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the sun shining through bare trees over a dirt trail that is bordered by the early signs of spring greenery comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this serene scene during my visit to Schodack Island State Park back on April 16, 2024.
Well, it’s Thursday, and I share this spring pathway photo as a visual encouragement or reminder to get on or to stay on the path of Christian discipleship and to celebrate reaching the Ides of January and the fact that temperatures are currently above freezing, making last night’s precipitation in the upstate NY rain instead of snow. Cold, rainy weather may not be something we would normally rejoice over, but when it’s raining instead of snow, I can accept it and be glad. Rainy days are better than snowy days in my book, and as each day passes, I know that spring is coming and with spring, with Christ, hope springs eternal.
Sunny days alone aren’t enough to sustain us for eternity, of course, but when you put your faith in Jesus and know that you have peace with God and will live forever, you can find hope all around you, and your spirit can be continually renewed.
Speaking of hope and renewed spirits, last night I hosted the second Celebrate Freedom support group meeting at Starpoint Church, and my joy was filled early because one of our participants, whom I hadn’t seen or heard from in seven weeks, returned to us with the good news that he was still walking strong in the Lord with 8 months of sobriety.
When someone walks away from your recovery group for that long, you assume the worst. Even though I send encouraging texts out semi-daily to my brothers in Christ, they often don’t respond, so I don’t know if they are doing well, reading the messages, or not. Recognizing the fact that I can’t change anyone, I offer my encouragement and assistance to others but allow people to choose their path and walk away. I recently shared how one of the people who came to our recovery meetings a couple of times chose to walk away and ended up dying of an overdose. So, when my friend dropped off the radar for the last part of 2025, I feared that he may have abandoned the faith and returned to his old habits.
Last night, he explained that he had gone out of town for work with some old colleagues, but he was back because even though he was still friends with these people, he was not the person he used to be. They, on the other hand, were still doing the things they were still acting like fools – drinking to drunkenness. While my friend was able to maintain his sobriety and enjoy the company of his friends for a while, despite their drunken antics, when their frivolity resulted in trashed air b & b’s, he decided that he couldn’t stay with them anymore. As awkward as it was, he decided to leave his old friends because he knew that destroying someone else’s property in the name of fun wasn’t cool, and if he continued to linger in their presence, he was more likely to succumb to the temptation to join them. So left to save himself, he reported that the Lord had already provided him with another job. My friend put his faith in Jesus and got baptized last year, and he made the hard decision to walk away from his toxic friends and to do what the Lord would have him do, to walk the straight and narrow and to shine a light for the gospel through his transformed life.
Speaking of shining a light, the In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley devotion for today mentions that phrase, and I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us all to cut off toxic people from our lives, when necessary, and to make ourselves wholly available to God. Dr. Charles Stanley writes
“Wholly Available
Believers are called to be God’s light in the world.
Matthew 5:13-16
Ask yourself this question: When it comes to my faith, what kind of light am I? Is your light a flicker others can see only if they’re really looking? Or is it the kind that brightens everything up when you walk into a room? Remember, when even a small flame is strong, it brings light to the whole room. So, as Christians, we ought to “shine,” no matter where we are.
Shortsightedness may be what dims our radiance, and it can cause us to miss out on blessings. Before deciding to cooperate with the Lord, we may think we have to see exactly what He plans to do. But we are called just to be faithful ambassadors who trust His Spirit to do the work in people’s hearts.
As believers, we are all special—God’s “workmanship” is the term used in Ephesians 2:10. We’re members of His family, indwelt by the Holy Spirit; His light is the radiance within us. So, our life has potential beyond imagination. We have no idea what amazing things the Lord can do through our willingness simply to shine the light of His powerful love.
If you’ll pray, “Father, do whatever You want with my life,” you can be sure that He’ll reveal the next step. God is willing and ready to move in the life of anyone who chooses to be available for Him.” – Charles Stanley
Amen. As Ephesians 2:10 says – we are God’s workmanship – this declaration comes right after verses that tell us we are saved by grace, through faith, and not by our works. Jesus is the one who did the work of salvation, and when we put our faith in Him, we become His “finished product”.
However, the rest of the verse that declares us as God’s workmanship tells us that we were “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)
This tells us about our purpose and why God saved us. Yes, God saved us because He loves us, but He created us in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared for us to do.
The good works God prepares for us to do include personal repentance and sanctification, of course, but they also include good works for others that will give God glory and possibly be used by God to bring people to Him.
But we have to make ourselves available to God’s plan for our lives and cooperate with Him to find and fulfill our specific purpose.
I’m not sure what kind of light we shine for the Lord, but I know that when we agree to follow and surrender ourselves to His will for our lives, the Lord will put us on a path that will touch the lives of many. When we “shine our light”, it can help others to see and to come out of the darkness.
God’s “good plan for your life” is to be transformed by your faith and to shine wherever you go. So go and shine your light in the way that only God could prepare for you to do.
——————————————————————
For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/.
——————————————————————
Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
(While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling By John G. Kruis on Amazon )
This morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Progressive Sanctification – Growing in Faith & Godliness.
2 Peter 3:18 (ESV) But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Today’s verse falls under the first point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Progressive Sanctification – Growing in Faith & Godliness.
1. Keep growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Today’s Bible verse encourages us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, which begs the question, how do we do that?
I believe this verse encourages us to foster our relationship with God. To grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus means we should seek to know Jesus more by seeking to understand Him as a person, understand His teachings, and to attempt to imitate and follow His ways.
When we make ourselves available to God and actively seek to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, we will not only know Jesus intellectually. We will know Him experientially as we witness God’s grace manifest in our lives and the lives that we touch. So, seek the Lord and rejoice as you get to further know Him and His grace.
———————————————————–
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today, we continue sharing from “Day by Day Along the Way” By Jay E. Adams.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Adams’ books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 361
The Spirit’s fruit is … patience. – Galatians 5:22
How we need it! Most of us want what we want when we want it. And when we want it is—Now! God isn’t in a hurry. He knows best what to give us and when to give it. With Him, a thousand years is as a day. We must, therefore, learn to wait patiently upon Him. When we finally adjust our watches and calendars to His time we will come to learn how to be patient with others whose watches are still set too far ahead. Yes, the affects of sin can be devastating to a country, to a church, to a family, to you. But if you are walking in the light, keeping pace with God, you will be able to see clearly how firm and straight the path is that leads upward. God’s thinking must become yours in relationship to time, as in everything else. When you look forward with anticipation—rather than impatience—to what God will do next, you will begin to enjoy life, with the surprises and adventures He has planned. Again, remember, this happens only as the Spirit brings forth this fruit in your life.[1]
The MT4Christ247 audio podcast is available on YouTube, Apple, Amazon, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Podbean, Audible, and many more podcast platforms!
Subscribe to The MT4Christ247 Channel on YouTube!
Email me at m.t.clark@mt4christ.com with any questions, comments, or to inquire about our Christian Life Coaching or Prayer Ministry Services.
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
Support MT 4 Christ Community Freedom Ministry!
To Give via Pay Pal Go to the MT4Christ Donations Page
Or Give Via Venmo or the Cash App by scanning the QR Code below:
[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 369.
Leave a Reply