Heartfelt Counsel of a Friend

 Friends are a great blessing. We all need friends, since God told us in the beginning it was not good for us to be alone in life. If we are married, it is very important for our spouse to be our friend, too. In addition, we need other friends who genuinely care for us and want to help us in any way they can. A person without friends is very poor indeed.

There is a proverb that teaches us about why friends are so important. (Proverbs 27:9) It says that the heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense. In other words, the counsel from the heart of one of our friends should be very appealing and pleasant to us. Let's take a minute to examine this truth.

A close friend really knows us. In certain areas they know us better than we know ourselves because they can see how we act and speak, so they can be objective about us, whereas we often see ourselves in a slanted way. When they come to us with heartfelt counsel, sincerely wanting to hep us, we should be glad to hear what they have to say.

However, sometimes we are proud, and we think we can manage well on our own. Therefore, we fail to listen to what our friends say, and we do not apply what they show us. That is a terrible mindset. We need to welcome heartfelt counsel gladly and enjoy the beautiful results we see by applying the truth from our friend.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Proverbs 28-30.