The Difference between Loyalty and Blind Allegiance

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Hello, hello.
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You're listening to the Jesse Morgan Devotions for the Christian Heart Podcast, episode 110.
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This week's devotional is titled The Friendship Series Part 2, The Difference Between Loyalty and Blind Allegiance.
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Let's go.
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Hi, I'm Jesse Morgan.
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I used to just share home decor and renovation tips on social media, but now I'm sharing something even closer to my heart.
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My journey in love for Jesus Christ, my Savior.
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Welcome to the Jesse Morgan Devotions for the Christian Hawk Podcast.
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This is a weekly devotional I started back in May 2024, but the inspiration for it came much earlier.
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It was rooted in a faith journey that began when my daughter was born four months early in 2023.
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Through that challenging time, God worked in ways that truly amazed me.
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On this podcast, I share personal stories of faith woven together with Scripture to show just how incredible God's word can be in our everyday lives.
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My hope is that through these stories, you'll be encouraged, uplifted, and reminded of God's love and presence, no matter what you're going through.
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So I invite you to spend less than 15 minutes with me each week as we reflect on these devotionals together.
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Let's all pray within.
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Friendship series part two: The Difference Between Loyalty and Blind Allegiance.
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Sometimes I feel people weaponize the word.
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Yeah, I'm talking about loyalty.
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They use it to gaslight others or to force someone to choose sides.
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But loyalty isn't about blind allegiance to me or to anyone else.
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Loyalty is about standing beside someone through highs and lows despite circumstances and disagreements.
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But hear me when I say this.
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You can be loyal to someone and still tell them they are wrong.
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I am loyal to my parents, they raised me, they gave me a wonderful childhood, but if my dad drove through a red light, I wouldn't ignore it.
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I would still love him, support him, and encourage him to do the right thing and call him out on his mistake.
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Loyalty doesn't mean pretending wrong is right.
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Yet in today's world, it seems that if a friend questions you or points out a mistake, people immediately question your loyalty.
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Since when can't friends disagree and still remain friends?
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I remember a friend group that I had that lasted about three or four years.
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Two of the women were newer friends, while the third was someone I had known for over a decade.
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She and I had history, we knew each other on a very like on a real deep level.
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Um over time I made a I made a major mistake and how I handled a situation.
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It was my fault.
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I apologized and I owned it.
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But the two newer friends criticized me relentless, relentlessly.
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They just wouldn't let it go.
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At some point, it went beyond correction and just became honestly really cruel and a bit a bit isolating for me.
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It hurt and and it was overwhelming.
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I gathered my things, I gathered my thoughts, and I just left.
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I needed space away from this friendship.
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My mom encouraged me to work things out, but what hurt me most wasn't even the you know, the newer friends per se.
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It was my longtime friend.
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She never called, she never checked on me, never asked how I was doing.
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She saw how upset I was and just said nothing.
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Eventually, the other women, you know, they said horrible things about me behind my back to other people, and my decade-long friend just stood there.
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She continued spending time with them and never addressed their behavior.
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If they invited her somewhere, she chose them over, you know, preserving our relationship.
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And that shattered me.
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It shattered my trust.
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Now, I respected her desire to remain friends with them.
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I never asked her to choose sides.
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I just wanted her to value our friendship enough to defend what was right and give me the grace and loyalty that I had given her.
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Because when someone doesn't give you the benefit of the doubt, doesn't come to you to hear your side, doesn't question gossip, doesn't stand beside you after you've acknowledged your mistakes, that's just not loyalty.
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As I reflect on it now, I think my friend, my decade-long friend, was avoiding conflict.
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Maybe she didn't want difficult conversations with those friends, but sometimes love requires uncomfortable conversations.
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Sometimes loyalty means stepping into hard situations because someone matters to you.
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Which brings me to Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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Yep, we're taking it biblical now.
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Um, these four Hebrew men were taken from their homeland and brought into Babylon.
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They served in a foreign kingdom, but they remained loyal to God and to one another.
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Most people remember the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refusing to bow to King Nebuchadnezzar's golden image.
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They were thrown into the blazing furnace, and God himself stood with them in the fire.
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There wasn't just three men in those flames, there were four, there was a fourth, and it was God protecting them, and they came out untouched.
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But here's another story that I think some people often forget, I forgot for a while.
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Um, in Daniel chapter 2, King Nebuchadnezzar demanded that someone tell him about both his dreams and their interpretation.
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If no one could, every wise man in Babylon would be executed, which included Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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Faced with death, these friends didn't turn on one another or God during a rough time.
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They didn't panic, they didn't blame each other.
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Instead, what did they do?
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They prayed together.
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And in Daniel 2, 17 through 18, it says, Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends, um, to his friends, Shakba, Meshach, and Abendigo.
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He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery of this dream from King Nebuchadnezzar.
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And that night God revealed the mystery of the dream to Daniel.
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Imagine the trust involved in all this, okay?
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His friends had to trust that God would work through Daniel, they remained united, they stayed faithful, they stayed loyal to each other.
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What friendship that really was.
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A life and death situation.
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And they trusted Daniel, and they trusted that God would give Daniel the right information, the right interpretation of that dream to save their lives.
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And perhaps, you know, that's what loyalty looks like.
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Not blind allegiance, not choosing sides, not flat out scolding, not avoiding difficult conversations, but loving one another enough to walk through hard seasons together.
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Friendship will always have ups and downs, I feel.
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People will disappoint each other, mistakes will happen, but trust and loyalty should not disappear the moment things become uncomfortable.
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And if they do, perhaps the friendship wasn't as genuine as you thought.
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Or maybe God is lovingly closing one chapter because he has another friendship waiting for you, one built on grace, trust, truth, and loyalty.
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Because true friends don't disappear when things get hard.
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True friendships talk to you about the hard things with love and support.
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They stay, they endure you, they love you regardless, and they show up, they give you the hard feedback, but they're still there for you.
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Um, this verse always is very telling.
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In Proverbs 17, 17, it says, A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.
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God uses loyal friends to remind us that we're not walking through the fire alone.
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God places people in our life to become closer during tough moments, to build bonding relationships that will hopefully last as long as needed.
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And that's what friendship is all about.
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And I'm so excited to continue this study of the friendship series.
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Love you all.
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Let's pray.
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Heavenly Father, thank you for the study of friendship.
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I'm so, so excited to dig into these different aspects of what it is to have friendships through people in the Bible.
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Father, I love you for the study.
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I love you for all your compassion for us, despite our flaws, despite for our despite our sinful nature, Lord.
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Bless everyone listening to this podcast, Lord.
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Thank you for this podcast and thank you for letting me be able to share, you know, my beliefs with people that it might, you know, encourage them to continue the relationship with you, Lord, to build a stronger relationship with you.
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Father, I love you and I praise you in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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Thank you all.
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Till next time.
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Well, that wraps up this week's episode.
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I hope these devotions help you draw closer to God each day.
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If this episode encouraged you, please share it with someone who might need the same message.
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And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a weekly episode.
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Also, if you feek if you feel compelled, leaving a nice review would be so appreciated as well.
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For more information or to reach out, check the show notes or visit jessymorganhome.com or find me on Instagram at JessieMorganlife.
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Remember, God's timing is always perfect.
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Keep trusting him.
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Until next time, this is Jesse Morgan praying off.