Iron Sharpens!
Posted on June 17, 2015 by America's Keswick in Freedom Fighters
Iron Sharpens
“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”(Proverbs 27:17)
Early in my marriage, I could not understand why my wife and I would have these mini skirmishes that would cause problems in our relationship. I was a good Christian, I built great relationships, and I was doing all kinds of ministry, so I would have thought that a great marriage should have come naturally, so I thought. However after what I would call, “Our Great Debate”, or just another bad argument. I began to feel conviction and brokenness about the way I would speak to my wife, I learned that I was rejecting the very tool God had given me to become more like Christ.
Iron pressing against Iron is a rough is a concept that produces great swords and blades. These apparatus are useful for many things. Clearly, issues in our own spirit will be manifested through the eyes of other. If I want to eat food from a deeper Divine truth, I had to embrace extra accountability that naturally comes from my closest relationship.
The truth is that we bring most of our problems into our relationships. As Christians, it’s healthy for us to to accept responsibility and quit blaming others. Every time you place blame on somebody else, you are not admitting the source of the real problem. Whether we like it or not God is using these relationships to stir up the inner truth from within. Iron Sharpens!
I agree that interpersonal relationships are an essential part of our everyday life, and they are good way to learn lessons that could not be learned otherwise. C. S Lewis mentions, “Nothing will shake a man-or at any rate a man like me-out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself.” God is working out our character flaws through the unconformable rubs in our closet relationships so that we become a productive vessel in the kingdom. Juan Mendez is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and serves full-time as a Chaplain. You can email him at jmendez@americaskeswick.org
Daily Bible Reading: Jeremiah 32-33; Matthew 26:26-50
Think About This: Sickness has frequently been of more use to the saints of God than health has. —C.H. Spurgeon
This Week’s Verse to Memorize: You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11