Joshna and Her Challenges
Hi! I’m Jeena, a student of a professional college. Joshna is my church mate and a close friend. She is my junior in the college where I study. Our college is about 20 km from our town and we commute to the college each day.
Let me tell you something about Joshna. She is a born again and baptized girl and is very soft hearted and loving and at the same time very reserved. She confides in me about all her prayer needs and problems and we often pray together as we are prayer partners. We are also active in the Youth Fellowship in our church. Joshna is a pleasing and friendly girl and is known for her very high spiritual standards in her life. So she is endeared by all in our Fellowship, church and all our classmates. She is a good singer of gospel music and is well-versed in the Bible and in doctrinal matters. She has also kept high standards in personal holiness and relationship. But one personality trait of Joshna is that she is unable to say, ‘no’ when people approach her. She easily falls a prey to promptings by others. Joshna is a happy daughter of her family and is close to her mom and dad. She often says that her mom is her best friend. I am much impressed with Joshna and often wish that I were like her in my behavior and attitude. Joshna gets close to people slowly and carefully and is careful in dealings. I have never seen her getting into an argument with anyone. With all of these nice characteristics, Joshna is my role model, even though she is younger to me.
Because of her innocent and subdued nature, Joshna has fallen into trouble in her relationships in personal life a few times. Last year when a boy in her senior class tried to lure her into a relationship, she hesitated for a while, but then slowly moved in that direction. When I found out about it, I warned her to be careful and to keep her heart and mind from falling into such traps of the enemy. Eventually, with great effort and a lot of persuasions and relentless prayer, I got her out of that relationship. She says that she is afraid the boy might fall into depression if she says ‘no’. I tried to explain to her that these are the plots and ploys of the enemy to destroy her life. It seems her problem is that whenever a classmate or a college mate approaches her and says that he likes her, she easily falls for it and doesn’t seem to know how to keep a distance. But the Lord gave her victory in this matter until last year.
But alas! It has happened again. I found out recently that Joshna has fallen into such a trap of relationship early this academic year. It seems some boy was trying to take advantage of her soft nature and inability to say, ‘no’. He seemed to have praised her for her good looks, soft nature and musical talents in a continuous manner and eventually she developed a soft corner for him. Added to that, she is regularly on WhatsApp chat with that boy. Thus the relationship has become stronger day by day. She seems to have a feeling that she can talk to him and help him to eventually become a believer. It seems this relationship is slowly affecting her prayer and devotional life. I wonder if this is the reason for her dwindling enthusiasm for prayer partnership with me. She escapes our joint prayer time through seemingly lame excuses.
I had a series of discussions with Joshna about how to keep away from such ungodly relationships. I shared with her my experience in handling such promptings by boys and keeping away from such temptations. I also warned her that such relationship, if allowed to perpetuate, will draw her away from her faith and will create serious heartache to her parents and fellow believers. But she was reluctant to relent, though in her characteristically soft manner. She seems to have reached the conclusion that everything will work well eventually. I feel sorry for Joshna because she seemed to be too soft to get away from such a trap of the enemy. I reminded her about such incidents in the life of Samson and how it ruined his life. I also told her about the heartaches Jacob and Rachel faced because of their relationship and selfish plans. But it seems nothing would move Joshna.
This situation of my best friend has disturbed me a lot and I am worried and fearful also. So I have been praying much for God to interfere with it and to get her out of this relationship.
I am sure if her parents find out about her relationship, it would break their hearts. Her parents are both active and enthusiastic Christians in their church and well-respected in the community. If this news leaks out, it would also affect the testimony of the family in the assembly and testimony of the assembly in the community. For this reason, I have not yet revealed this matter to anyone. But how long can I hide it from her parents? I asked Joshna to discuss this matter with her parents for their counsel, but she is afraid to do so because she knows that it would hurt their feelings and take away their trust in her. It seems Joshna knows in her heart that what she is involved in is not right before God, family and fellow believers, but she is unable to take a stand about it. She seemed to be trapped by her personality and the free environment of the college in the latest relationship.
Questions for Discussion/MeditationQuestions for discussion
1. Do you know of any of your Christian friends who have fallen into a relationship with unsaved / saved people?
2. Is Joshna biblically right in her relationship with an unbeliever? How could she have avoided it at the beginning?
3. Has Joshna been true to her calling as a Christian believer? Do you think she has any spiritual problems?
4. What kinds of temptations and challenges lay waiting for Christian Youth like Joshna in the secular world and from the so-called ‘born-again’ people? How can they guard themselves against falling into such traps of the enemy?
5. What do you think about Joshna’s friend Jeena’s role in this scenario? If Joshna is your friend, how will you handle this situation?
6. Is Jeena justified in her concerns about Joshna? Should we have such concerns about other believers who have spiritual problems? How can we handle these concerns?What lessons, if any, are you able to learn from the present events in the life of Joshna?
No comments:
Post a Comment