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PROGRAM D-7323
Has a friend ever wounded you for your own good? In Proverbs 27:6 we read: “Wounds from a friend can be trusted…” That sounds strange, doesn’t it? A good friend wouldn’t wound us, would they?
Yes indeed, there are times when the best thing a friend can do for us is to wound us. A friend was telling me of a woman in her Bible study who was complaining that God didn’t seem very close to her anymore. She didn’t know what was wrong, but somehow she just couldn’t pray like she used to. She kept talking in these vague generalities, and my friend, Nancy, kept probing with questions.
“Why does God seem far away? What has happened to cause you to stop praying?” As a good friend, Nancy probed with love and gentleness, until finally this woman confessed that there was an area in her life where she was being disobedient to God. The next day she called Nancy and said, “Thank you for not letting me get by with my weak excuses and forcing me to face myself. I didn’t like it at the time, but I needed to get that out in the open.”
Nancy was a wonderful friend to her. She wounded her, gently and with great love and concern, but in so doing she forced her to get things right with the Lord and restore fellowship with him. You see, Nancy knew, as I do, that usually when we’re talking vaguely about not being close to God, there is some specific underlying reason for it, which we don’t want to confront. But until it is confronted, we just keep drifting along, fooling ourselves and losing ground spiritually.
Now, you have to earn your right to be a friend who wounds. We can do great damage to a friendship if we do this kind of thing in the wrong way at the wrong time. But I have friends who certainly have earned their right to be a friend who wounds, who hold me accountable, who don’t let me get by with shallowness or excuses. How I thank God for those friends. Those are wounds that can be trusted.
So, when God gives you the kind of friend who holds you accountable and gives trustworthy wounds, don’t be angry or upset, but thank God for that friend. That is a gift from God to you, and while that wound may temporarily hurt, in the end it is for your good.