Posted on 11/26/2021 11:03:58 PM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Proverbs 27:6).
So, often what you fall into in friendships is that you are insecure, and you want the friendship, and you like your friend and all that kind of thing; but if you are not careful, peer pressure comes into play. We hear about peer pressure with teens, but adults are every bit as bad as teenagers and kids are about this matter. There are full grown hairy men that will not stand up to the wrong influences. That is sad thing. So, first thing is you have to make sure that you are not just following a friend just because he's your friend. A friendship that is right and mutual should be a thing where you actually both labor to keep each other in line. It says there, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.”
Do you have friends that are willing to wound you if it means keeping you on the right track? There is not much of that in the world these days. In the world, they might wound you if you do not go out drinking with them on Friday night. If you quit sending your kids out on Halloween night dressed like witches, they might wound you then. How about wounds for righteousness sake? How about wounding a friend who is not doing right, and is in fact doing wrong, making bad decisions. How about wounding the friend, in friendship, to try to get him back on the right course?
My question for you is do you have friends like that? I have learned through the years that I have different kinds of friends. I have friends that I consider at least my spiritual equals an above me I consider their faith and their devotion to the Lord as probably more than mine. I need to hang around folks that are more spiritual than me. Right? We also have friends that we minister to that need us. They are weaker than we are. They have needs that we can address. So, there are friends we ministered to; but then we also need friends that are strong that will tell us if we are wrong, or if I am out of line, or if I have misspoken or misdone something. I need those kind of friends, and so do you.
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