As Iron Sharpens Iron, So One Man Sharpens Another

Romans 1:11-12

"For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine."





Here, Paul shares his heart with the believers in Rome - He longs to see them, and this is why - to impart some spiritual gift to them so that they can stand firm in their faith and be well established. He clarifies what he really means by saying that I may be encouraged together with you, each by the other's faith. That is how our faith should operate - to encourage each other. How encouraging are you to be around? What is your conversation when surrounded by other believers? Do you talk about what God has done? What He is doing? How He is teaching you? Or is your conversation no different from that in the world?



I recently spent a couple of hours talking to a friend of mine and upon leaving her home, all I could think about was how much more I wanted to know Jesus. What an impact to have on people!! This is the effect that I would like to have on people. I want my relationship with Jesus to be so full that it overflows into the lives of everyone I come in contact with, so that when they walk away from me their desire has grown to know Him more.

At the end of 2009 my hope is to look back over the year and see that I have become a completely different person - can you imagine the changes if you run towards the Lord with ALL your heart, with ALL your mind, and with ALL your strength for an entire year? Its like training vigorously for anything athletic - a year of solid training would make such vast improvements that you wouldn't even recognize yourself! That is what I long for spiritually. One of the first steps then, is to re-examine my faith, and observe how it functions. What do I use it for? Do I use it to comfort other people? To encourage and be encouraged in turn? Do I do what I can to cause it to grow? Exercise it?

Proverbs 27:17 says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." I have had friends that sharpen me and friends that cause me to be dull and I know that I have had friends that I sharpen and friends that I have caused to become dull - Lord forgive me.

So from this point, right now, I pray Jesus, that You would cause me to be a sharpening tool. Make me mindful of every word before spoken and every thought before action taken. Make me a tool that sharpens the people around me and help me to have the wisdom to surround myself with people that will sharpen me.