85. AMA: What Do I Do When My Friends Are Leading Me Away from Jesus?

We have just 32 days until UncommonTEEN Live!! 

Ladies, I cannot tell you how excited I am about all that God is already doing through this conference! 

Our tickets are selling, but we still have room for you! If you have any questions about the conference or you’re ready to grab your tickets today, head on over to uncommonteenlive.com. 

This week on our Ask Me Anything episode and I am answering questions from Celeste and Nicole. 

Celeste says, 
"I'm a Christian teen and last year I was surrounded by people who did not share the same beliefs as I did. I felt like I was being pressured to be someone I wasn't so I told them I was lesbian to fit in. Now, I know I was wrong and I've been trying to surround myself with more like-minded people. However, when I see my old friends, I feel pressured to still talk about the LGBTQ community and agree with it, when I don't, then afterwards I feel bad."

 And Nicole says, 
“Hey Jamie. I’m in some kind of dilemma. So I recently moved continents and had to attend a new school. It’s a lot different from my school at home. I really prayed for God to lead me to good friends so I won’t be alone on the first day. And it did happen; I was welcomed by an amazing group of girls. But they don’t really have a relationship with God or seek to have one. 

It’s been so hard trying to share my faith because of fear of rejection. Lately my relationship with God has gone downhill and I’m planning on spending the summer getting closer to Him. I told God that I truly want Him to use me for His work and that I’m ready to lay down those things I hold dear to me. 

So my new friends added me to their group chat mainly to talk about our holiday plans but I’ve been having this feeling to leave it. I don’t know if it’s God telling me to or if I’m just trying to pull back from them. I did leave but they asked me why I left when I came to school and since I had no answer, I just told them to add me back. 

What do you think I should do? They’ve been so nice to me since the day I arrived and I don’t want them to feel like I don’t want to be friends anymore. I’ve asked God if it’s Him trying to tell me if I should leave the group. I know this is more of a trivial issue but I don’t want anything to separate me from God."


To learn how to navigate challenging situations like this, check out this week's episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast.