Who Sharpens You?
Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. (Proverbs 27:17)
When you are stuck in sin, what are you compelled to do? Are you compelled to engage other believers and prayerfully work through sin’s power in your life? Hopefully, that is the case. Unfortunately, many believers urge themselves to withdraw, retract, and disengage from those who would walk through our sin with us because it can be embarrassing admitting we have messed up. However, this is the last thing we should do!
Let us remember, as Christians, we are called to confess our sins to one another (James 5:16). This is not an irrational rule meant to shame us into compliance. Contrarily, it is intended for our benefit and building one another up in love and grace. What we seem to forget is that what we struggle with, others have or do as well. Our Christian brother or sister has already been through what we are experiencing and can be there to help us through it. Don’t let pride keep you in sin!!
We may be grieved by our sin but continue to live in it because we aren’t confessing it and being sharpened in our fight against it. Repentance is much more than feeling sorry about our sin; it is literally turning around and going in the opposite direction. Rather than living in the dark and returning to sin, confess your sin to a brother or sister and stay accountable to him or her. When this happens, you will find you both become sharper, more useful tools for the Lord.
Who sharpens you?
This blessed me when I read it and I felt it needed to be shared. Just remember it’s not a free pass to gossip but to genuinely find that one person in your life who sharpens you, won’t judge you, get mad at you but love you and pray with you and for you and who will be honest in love and in return you do the same for them. You may be thinking, I don’t have anyone in my life I can go to and that’s the furthest thing from the truth, go to God, talk to Him and He will bring someone into your life who sharpens you. Believe Him for that person in your life and you go out and be that someone for someone else. Allow God to use you to be that person that someone is looking for to sharpen them. It could be your spouse, your child, your co-worker or even your friend. I needed to be reminded of this today. Here I am Lord, use me.
Have a wonderful day in The Lord!
Today’s Reading is Proverbs 27:1-17