![]() And be grateful for those people in your life who sharpen you or have sharpened you in the past. Don’t be afraid to admit that some people don’t sharpen you-they dull you. Those you spend time with will inevitably impact your own life-for good or for ill. We can sharpen them and they can sharpen us. That people similar to us can make good sharpeners. So recognizing the simple truth of Proverbs 27:17 should help. The simple truth is that it’s better to be close to those things that help us…and far away from those things that hurt us. A goal is what we should be getting closer to-even if we never fully arrive. That’s something worth aiming for-even if you can’t hit the target all the time. In an ideal world, the people we spend the most time with would be the people who most sharpen us. Be grateful for those who sharpen you.So we’ll need to recognize who dulls us-and avoid them if we can. We’re each responsible for our own growth and health. And you can balance it out by spending time with those who SHARPEN YOU after you’ve been DULLED. But you can at least LIMIT the time you spend with people who dull you. Of course, some people you cannot avoid even if you want to. So you’ll want to spend time with people whose characteristics you want to TAKE ON. We tend to take on the characteristics of people we spend time with. When you spend time with such people, you come away LESS than you were. They don’t help you RESOLVE PROBLEMS-they CREATE PROBLEMS for you. But the truth is that some people don’t sharpen you. Realize that some people don’t sharpen you-they dull you.This is especially important when it comes to friends. We only need the right people to sharpen us. We don’t need an army of people to sharpen us. So the sharpening piece will need to be carefully selected. Not every piece of iron will effectively sharpen another piece of iron. But the piece of iron chosen is important. Notice it doesn’t require a LOT OF IRON to sharpen one piece of iron. Friends can and should sharpen each other. The more time you spend with this kind of person-the better BOTH OF YOU will be. Friends increase the effectiveness of each other. In fact, this is one of the great benefits of friendship. Yet they have the power to increase the ‘sharpness’ (effectiveness) of each other. The two people can be similar in many ways. Likewise, it doesn’t require a SUPERIOR PERSON to sharpen another person. You can sharpen a piece of iron with a piece of iron just like itself. You don’t need something SUPERIOR to iron to sharpen iron. If you’ve ever watched a skilled chef sharpen one knife with another knife-you’ve seen this truth in action. That it’s a person who sharpens a person. Notice that it’s iron that sharpens iron. The two sharpening components are similar.Let’s look at some implications from this proverb. ![]() But the main point is clear and beyond dispute. That one person becomes more ‘effective’ through the right kind of interaction with another person. ![]() This principle is then applied by way of analogy to human relationships. The assumption is that the ‘iron’ is a knife or a saw or an axe, or some other iron tool where effectiveness increases with sharpness. The iron in the proverb improves by being sharpened. As iron improves by the right kind of interaction with other iron-so a person is improved by the right kind of interaction with another person. The primary analogy is about improvement through process. Let’s look at the primary analogy and then draw some conclusions implied by the proverb. Proverbs 27:17 teaches through analogy, as many of the proverbs do. Their wisdom has stood the test of time, and the principles they cite are as relevant today as when they were first written-now more than three millennia ago. And worthy of attention and incorporation into our lives. Amen.With today’s post we complete our August journey through some of the Bible’s proverbs. I pray for the wisdom to humbly accept wise counsel from those you have placed in my life. PRAYĭear Heavenly Father, thank You for your Truth that helps to develop me into a better woman. So I encourage you to listen to wise and sincere counsel over only your feelings, embrace the truth even when you don’t want to hear it, and allow God to use these sharp situations to grow you into the woman He is calling you to be. It’s not a comfortable situation but it’s one that will make you wiser, stronger, and more capable. The scripture compares this to iron sharpening iron. God places people in our lives to help us become better. But I was reminded of Proverbs 27:17 that says: “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” (ESV) I knew it was true but in situations like this our flesh wants to protect our feelings and become defensive. I had a friend tell me a hard truth to accept about myself the other day. – Proverbs 27:17 ESV TODAY’S ENCOURAGEMENT Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
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