I read a study that said for every happy friend you have, you are twenty percent more likely to be happy. That technically means that if you can just find five happy friends, there's a good chance you're going to be happy. This is what the scripture says, "If you walk with wise people, you will become wise." It's true in the negative, just like the positive. Proverbs says, "If you hang around a gossip, you'll become a gossip." Think of it like this: for every peace stealer you allow into your life, you are twenty percent more likely to live stressed, on edge, or have a crisis. Why don't you focus on finding happy friends?
I'm not saying that you have to cut people off or never speak to them again. I am saying that you should put up some healthy boundaries. You don't have to make a big announcement. Just little by little, spend less and less time with that person. If you don't remove the wrong people out of your life, you'll never meet the right ones, especially in your inner circle, the people who are closest to you. You want them to be stable, consistent, happy, Godly, responsible people who move you toward your destiny. Like iron sharpens iron, you make each other better.
This is the reason many people are stuck. Who do you have in your life? What types of relationships are you giving your time and energy to? Are you putting out fires all the time, trying to keep someone happy, feeling guilty because you can't meet their demands? That's going to wear you out. It's time to make a change. You can't please everyone.
We see this principle with Jesus. After a long day of teaching and praying for people, the scripture says He left the crowds and went away to rest. There were still many needy people asking for prayer. I'm sure some of them thought, "Wow, we traveled all this way, and He didn't even wait to pray for us. He let us down." Jesus wasn't being rude or overlooking their needs; He was taking care of Himself. He knew He needed to get away and get quiet so He could be refreshed to be more effective.
There will always be people who need you, someone who needs rescuing, needs encouraging, or needs your help. If you try to meet everyone's needs, you'll end up run down over time, even burned out. Your number one priority is to keep yourself healthy. If Jesus was willing to walk away from needs to protect His peace and stay at rest, then we need to be willing to walk away from things that we know are stealing our peace, too!