“Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice.”

Recently I was with a group of men from around the South on a fly-fishing trip to Montana. On the trip, I watched carefully while most of them built relationships with one another that reached a depth only achieved with a common belief in God and His reality in each story. They were all very different and came from unique life experiences. The day after returning home, one of the guys sent me a message saying he ran into a very painful family situation that in the past would have set off an angry response from him. This time, he immediately texted one of the other guys from the trip, and that man called him right away. In his own words, he “talked me down off the cliff.” That is a good picture of what Solomon refers to in this verse. It is also a crystal-clear picture of what The Edge ministry is all about: iron sharpening iron. Heartfelt advice is not manipulative, self-serving, or coercive. It’s compassionate and wise. This is one of the main reasons God has placed these kinds of people in our journey. When our emotions or biases cloud our judgment, it is vital to know we can turn to trusted fellow believers for clear, clean, Godly counsel. The list of those people in my life is long. It’s taken years to develop, and now I lean on them heavily and often. Today, find those with heartfelt, Godly advice for your journey. #BeTheEdge

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11 NIV