Thursday Reading: Proverbs 27:6
Key Verse: Proverbs 27:6
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Devotion:
Advice that we never want to hear is advice that would have us hurt in any way whether it be physically, emotionally or spiritually. Being hurt may be low on our list of things we want done to ourselves but being hurt by a friend has got to be even lower than that. On the other side of the coin, hurting a friend in any way is something that we wish we never have to do; but once in a while it is unavoidable through circumstance.
If our friends are going where they should not or doing what they should not, then we may well have to step in and tell them off in some way in order to get them back on track. Hurting them by telling them off is going to hurt us as well but will not be anything as bad as watching our friends sink deeper and deeper into sin and their own destruction. But as we are reminded in Proverbs 17:17, as friends we must always be there and should not turn our backs on our friends.
It’s not just the being there for friends or the keeping friends on track that we are reminded about through our bibles but also that fact that we need to make sure that we do not follow the advice of the evil people around us. So how are we supposed to tell the evil from the good? That is in our bibles too and that is yet another reason why we have to read our bibles constantly. Just knowing that the advice is in our bibles is not good enough. We have to extract that knowledge and get it into our heads and bury it deep in our hearts. Without taking in that knowledge it is just the same as any other book on the shelf. By reading and taking in God’s Word we then get to hear from God about what it is that He wants us to know so that He can continue to guide us in our lives. He is our friend and He wants to keep us straight!
Points to Ponder:
Do you like being told off?
Are you going to listen to God’s advice first of all?