DAY 20 - IRON SHARPENS IRON

THE WORD

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."—Proverbs 27:17

THE BURDEN

You cannot sharpen yourself. Iron does not sharpen iron by lying in a drawer alone—it sharpens iron through friction, contact, and pressure. The same is true of the Christian life. God never designed you to grow in isolation. He designed you to grow in relationship—with people who love you enough to tell you the truth, challenge your comfort, and refuse to let you stay where you are.

This is what you and your prayer partner have been doing for twenty days.

But it is also what the person you are praying for is going to need when they come to faith. They will need people around them who are further down the road—people whose lives create the friction that produces growth. Not critics. Not spectators. Disciplers. Men and women who are willing to do life close enough to sharpen and be sharpened in return.

The enemy's greatest strategy against new believers is isolation. Get them saved and then get them alone. Cut them off from community before roots can grow and they become easy to pull up. Your job—and the job of the community around you—is to make sure that never happens.

Pray today that God would surround the person you are praying for with the right people at the right time. And ask Him to make you one of them.

THE PRAYER

Lord, thank You for the people You have placed in my life who have sharpened me. I pray today that You would surround the person I am praying for with men and women who will walk closely with them, challenge them, and help them grow. Make me willing to be that person. And continue to sharpen me as I pursue them. In Jesus' name, Amen.

The name I am praying for:

FOR YOUR PRAYER PARTNER

Thank your prayer partner today for sharpening you through these twenty days. Be specific—tell them one way they have made you stronger. Then pray together that God would build that same kind of relationship around the person you are praying for.