2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 is Paul’s challenge to the Corinthian Christians to make hard choices about their relationships in order to protect a close walk with God. Following is a prayer guide that goes with the sermon from Sunday, February 22, 2009. If you have listened to it yet, I encourage you to do so. Click here to listen to it online.

Separating yourself from the world’s influence:

• Identify your weaknesses – Ask God to show you areas in your life where you make excuses, allowances or comprises. Ask God to show you what people, places or practices that lead your heart away from a sincere and complete commitment to Him.

• Do not accommodate temptation – What happens just before you get involved in that familiar sin? What changes do you need to make in where you go, what you do and who you are with to create the needed distance between you and powerful temptation?

• Employ painful accountability – Ask God to show you someone who is serious about their walk with God, a person you respect and someone you are willing to invest in. Once it is clear who, approach them and explain you need and want them to ask you hard questions about your areas of struggle.

• Learn to use the sword of God’s word – Get a good concordance or ask a person who has been walking with God for a while and find scriptures that tell you the truth about the things that tempt you most. When y9ou are times of struggle, pray those verse back to the Lord asking Him for them to be true for you.

• Take Jesus with you – Remind yourself each and every day and in every place you go that Jesus is in charge of your life. For the sake of your prayer time, imagine going to those places where you struggle to serve God and tell God that he is Lord and you want to please Him in those places from now on.

• Stay clean and close to the Lord – 1 John 1:9 is a wonderful promise verse that tells us what to expect from God when we fail … even if it is again. It is what one person described as the “Christian’s bar of soap.” Be honest with God and specific about where you have failed … make no excuses and own responsibility then humbly ask God to wash you clean and give you a fresh start.

Cleaning up a Carnal Relationship

Do you have a close relationship with a person who claims to be a Christian but does not live like it? If so, it is likely a struggle for you to stay focused on and motivated to serve the Lord. The following is intended to be first a prayer guide then a series of talking points for you to use as you sit down with that person and make clear that this is a new day.

• Accept responsibility for what has been wherever this relationship has been in the past, whatever things you have participated in or agreed to … accept your responsibility first to the Lord then to the person. Explain that is not going to be who you are anymore.

• Paint a clear picture of where you are going – describe in specific terms that your new priority is to serve the Lord. Explain it is a change you are not going to renegotiate or change.

• Offer to make this journey together – explain that you recognize that the relationship has not been focused on pleasing the Lord in the past but that you want them to join you in this new direction.

• Make the call deciding where the friendship is going to go from here – depending on their response, make the decision about where the relationship is going in the future.

What to do if you are already unequally yoked

Understand that this guide is to offer direction for relationships in general – friendship, business, etc. However, understand that marriage is a covenant agreement intended to last a lifetime. For specific counsel if you are in a marriage to a person who is not a Christian, consider Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 7:12-15.

• Make Jesus Lord of all in your life – this means deciding who is the most important relationship in your life. If you are going to have to disappoint someone, who is it going to be?

• Paint a clear picture of where you are going – explain that you have a new priority to love and serve God. As a result, things are going to be different than they have been. Be specific in describing what and how things will be different.

• Make the call – decide and communicate how things will be from this point forward.