Sharpened by Warriors from The Burning Bush Series
“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17 ESV
Hey friend!
I’m so excited about the privilege of spending time together today. We have been going through our burning bush series over the last few weeks and God has been faithful to teach us some amazing truths along this journey. He sure is good, isn’t He?
If you are just joining us, we have discussed how God wants us to be available for these moments as well as to be available with the correct heart posture. We also discussed how God will not give us details and blueprints when He asks something of us. God wants us to step out in complete obedience and faith when He asks us to do something and not to rely on our own understanding. Friend – that is hard for me to do!
Next, we talked about how our environment is majorly important and how the enemy can deceive us into thinking that we are already in the right environment because we attend church and are active in church activities. While attending church is absolutely necessary, it should never take the place of our daily walk with God, and we touched on how important it is to cultivate the right environment with God on a daily basis. We talked last week about how that begins with a prayer of asking God for a hunger for Him and His word.
If you missed the main story, just click here to find it.
This brings us to the next lesson as we wind down this series.
Lesson #6
Surround yourself with others that are ignited
Logic seems to say that our flame will only be expanded when we take our flame to others that aren’t ignited. While this is true in theory and a necessity that we need to ignite others with our flame, our flame will eventually burn out if we are not consistently surrounding ourselves with others that are experiencing a daily ignited walk with God. Our key verse says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17
We are sharpened and ignited more when we surround ourselves with women that are striving for an ignited walk themselves. The brush pile that my parents were burning was huge, but the flame was only burning on one side of the pile. The other side of the pile was lifeless. Just bushes and tree limbs but no flame. No hot fire.
When my dad took one of the hot, burning bushes that was blazing in the middle of the fire and re-located it to the other side of the pile of bushes where no fire was present; the red-hot, blazing bush burned for a little bit, but eventually the flame on that bush was extinguished. This burning bush, that once was ignited, fiery and red-hot, didn’t succeed in catching the other bushes on fire. Quite the opposite. During the time that the bush was located in the active flame, the bush was on fire. But when the bush was moved to other bushes that weren’t burning, the flame eventually went out.
Sweet friend, we are in a war. It isn’t a physical war. It is a spiritual war. Ephesians 6:12 tells us that we don’t war against flesh and blood. Dear friend, this battle that we are in is an unseen battle. It is a battle against the rulers of darkness and against the spiritual host of wickedness. The enemy wants you and me to walk around defeated. The enemy wants our families, our marriages, our children, and our testimony; and you better believe he is fighting hard for it.
Last weekend, I attended a women’s retreat with some ladies from our church. One of the teaching points we discussed was how to grow up in our faith as a believer - one of the ways we do that is to spend time with His warriors.
We must be spending time with warrior sisters that are suited up with the armor of God right beside us that are willing to war with us, for us, and because of us as we do the same for them.
Sweet friend, I’m not saying to ditch your best friend of a lifetime, but some questions come to mind.
Is that friend bringing you closer to God on a daily, consistent basis?
Are they helping and encouraging you to be IN God’s Word, and to walk out the principles needed for victorious living?
Does this friend point you to God’s word to help you deal with a crisis, or give you sound, Biblical advice on how to deal with that co-worker that has gotten on your last nerve?
Oh, friend, it’s important WHO we surround ourselves with and who is in our sphere of influence.
See, lost people will act like lost people. The world needs to see Jesus through us. We must remember that lost people will never want our Jesus if we constantly show them our fleshly, human responses instead of His love and His grace. It’s imperative to develop these daily rhythms that craft us to respond more like Jesus as we surround ourselves with those that are actively striving for that same ignited walk.
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for reminding me of your love for me. I honestly don’t understand why you love me so, but I’m thankful that you do. Continue to bring warrior sisters in my path that will challenge me in my walk with You. I want the world to see Jesus through everything that I say and do. Teach me how to be more like you. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Dig Deeper:
“Therefore encourage one another and build one another us, just as you are doing.”
1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV
Reflection:
Are you surrounding yourself with other women that are striving for an ignited walk?
If you don’t have Godly warriors that you spend time with, ask God to lead them to you or lead you to them.