As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. Proverbs 27:17, devotional
Thought: Just as any good dish is made up of various ingredients, so our lives are a product of various influences and, without doubt, one of the main ones is the friends we have. A friend is someone who has not only gotten to know you has also won your trust to have the freedom to speak into your life, and our lives are an outcome of the words we allow to influence us. Not everyone in the Bible did God call a friend: Abraham was called a friend of God (James 2:23); Jesus called His disciples friends. Those into whose lives God could speak, those whom God could share His innermost thoughts with (without being doubted or misunderstood) are the ones God called his friends. Friends are important. Our prayer this year is that God will surround our children with good friends: friends who will be able to speak the purpose of God into the lives of our children. We will also pray that God will give our children the divine discernment to know whom to allow to influence them and whom to guard against. Yes, God is able to do that.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, this morning we thank You for the blessing of friends. Lord, it is through the blessing of friends that You bless and enrich our lives in many ways and for this we thank You. Lord, this year we pray that You will enrich the lives of our children with good friends. Yes, Lord, we pray You will pick out the friends for our children and bless their lives with relationships that are pleasing to You, relationships that form conversations that You take pleasure in (Malachi 3:16). Lord, we also pray that You will GUARD our children from relationships that are not pleasing to You. Lord, we pray Your blood protection from unhealthy relationships and we thank You that You will give our children the discernment and the boldness to keep themselves from these. Lord we thank You that, this year, the lives of our children will be enriched and sharpened through the blessing of friends, ones that “love at all times” (Prov. 17:17). In Jesus’ precious name, amen.