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Proverbs chapter 26 verse 7 faithful are the wounds of a friend

profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

Wow, what a helpful proverb to hear and heed and remember that the kisses of an enemy.

I mean, what a powerful image of people who say nice things about you,

but who do not have your good in mind.

There are so many pictures of this in the world around us, the praises of people that are fleeting that are there one minute and turn around

and are gone the next, kisses of enemies who actually in many cases want our harm or are seeking their own good above us, but then there are friends who are living for our good and will sometimes say hard things to us,

wounds.

And Proverbs 26-7 says,

These are faithful.

In other words, these even wounds are good.

It is good to listen to a friend who loves you and is helping you by sharing hard things with

you. We see this all over the New Testament in exhortations from Jesus himself to go to a brother or

sister who is caught in sin and to help restore them.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend when the whole goal is restoration to God and redemption for your good.

So let's be people who receive the wounds of friends with humility and let's surround ourselves with friends

like this who we can trust who don't just tell us what we want to hear but who will

tell us hard things when we need to hear them.

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