“As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” Proverbs 27:17
Knives in my kitchen are sharp! I regularly hone them with a device especially designed to keep the edges able to keenly cut through even a ripe tomato. The work of sharpening requires a grinding away of those little burrs that prevent the knife from doing its job, and this process takes attention and must be repeated regularly.
God wants His people to be “keen edged” as well. If a knife is dull, it is still a knife but its usefulness is diminished. And so with Christians. God frequently uses people and events to keep us focused, to draw our attention to those seemingly small “burrs” that prevent us from being faithful followers.
How do I react to such sharpening? What is my response when my plans are thwarted and someone comments on my impatience? Do I immediately defend my actions? Do I maintain my “rights”? Is my response filled with “I” statements?
Oswald Chambers wrote: God can never make us wine if we object to the fingers He uses to crush us with…when He uses someone whom we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, and makes those the crushers, we object… you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.
And knives only become useful when they have been sharpened.
Lord, I like being “sharp” but I resist the tools you regularly use to keep me that way. Thank you for never giving up on me. Give me grace to accept and even welcome your tools.
Describe a time when God used a friend to sharpen your life and Christian witness.
by Marilyn Ehle
Used by Permission
FURTHER READING
• When Personalities Clash by Julie Cosgrove
• Life’s Painful Experiences | a Poem by Margaret Mullings
• Wisdom for Life’s Trials – by Charles Stanley