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Together in Christ: 'Needed Wounds from a Sincere Friend' — Proverbs 27:5-6 Sunday, February 18, 2024 An open rebuke is better than hidden love! Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy. — Proverbs 27:5-6 NLT Key Thought As we journey through this series of daily Scriptures and thoughts on relationships, we will come back to today's theme again and again. We all need close, spiritual, loving friends who tell us the truth. While the truth is sometimes painful, we can't strengthen our walk with God or correct our missteps in our discipleship, or confess our sins to another person, without these kinds of friends. We also need close, trusted friends to "confess our sins to each other and pray for each other." [1] Iron sharpens iron, so we need strong and trustworthy friends. [2] We all stumble and fall, so we need loving friends to help us stand back up and get back on our journey. [3] And yes, there will be times when we are wrong, rude, insensitive, hurtful, selfish, sinful, or arrogant. In those moments, we don't need the fawning admiration of fake friends but the strong word of correction of faithful friends. [4] An enemy is happy for us to have our moment in the sun if that moment is leading us toward disaster. A true friend tells us the truth about life, ourselves, and our flaws. We need such friends because "Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy!" Let's not flinch or turn away from correction or rebuke when it comes from godly mentors, parents, and friends. [5] True friends offer godly correction to save us from disasters, and often those disasters are of our own making! [1] James 5:16. [2] Proverbs 27:17. [3] Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; Galatians 6:1-2. [4] 2 Timothy 4:2; Hebrews 12:4-5. [5] Proverbs 1:8, 6:20, 3:11-12, 17:10; Ephesians 6:4; 2 Timothy 2:1-2, 4:2. TODAY'S PRAYER Loving Father, please bring good and faithful people into my life to mold, correct, rebuke, encourage, instruct, and guide me in Your ways. I want my life to honor You and point others to Jesus. O, Father, I need the help of the Holy Spirit to be able to bear with correction patiently and humbly so that I can make it a blessing instead of resisting it because of my defensiveness or arrogance. Please forgive me and mold me in Your ways. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. RELATED SCRIPTURE READINGS Proverbs 31:1-31 2 Timothy 4:1-22