Proverbs 27:6
Here are 5 things God will use in your life to help protect you from getting hurt by someone.
1. God Will Use Quick Endings to Protect You from Long-Term Suffering By Someone
Nobody wants to get ghosted. It never feels good when someone who was showing interest in you suddenly gives you the cold shoulder. And the confusion that occurs when someone rejects you when they had previously just accepted you can be extremely painful. But we must trust God when these quick endings occur.
Ephesians 4:27 (NIV) says, “. . . do not give the devil a foothold.” The longer you remain with someone that Satan wants to use against you, the stronger his foothold will be. Oftentimes God protects us from getting hurt by ending these relationships quickly.
2. God Will Use Past Relationship Problems to Protect You from Present Relationship Dangers
Sometimes God lets us get hurt so that we can avoid even more pain in the future. Painful lessons are never enjoyable to learn, but sometimes without the pain we would not learn at all. God will often protect us from greater wounds by allowing us to first learn from lesser wounds. Proverbs 9:8-9, 12 states:
Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you. Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning . . . If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you; if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.”
We don’t come out of the womb preloaded with all the relationship wisdom we need. God has to teach us these lessons. A wise person will learn from their past so they can avoid even greater hurts in the future.
3. God Will Use His Eternal Truth to Protect You from Earthly Wounds
“Rules.” Our human nature cringes at the word. But God’s rules are so different than we often think. God’s rules are not there to prevent fun. God’s rules are there to prevent death. As Psalm 19:9-11 explains:
. . .the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”
The Bible gives us a context to properly understand the world that we live in. It helps us know what is in the human heart, how Christ alone can make us pure, and how to best live in a way the brings maximum glory to God and maximum joy to us.
We can’t always avoid getting hurt, but we can avoid causing self-inflicted damage. When we obey God’s rules given to us in love, we will avoid those hurts which are avoidable.
4. God Will Use the Holy Spirit’s Counsel to Protect You from Getting Hurt By Someone
In Joshua 9, Israel is in the process of gaining more of the promised land. God is giving them victories against their enemies. But then they are deceived by the Gibeonites. These people see that Israel is coming, so they go to Joshua and the leaders of Israel but they pretend to be a people from a faraway country. They put on old clothes and warn out sandals to make it look like they were on a long journey. They bring with them old bread and tell the Israelites that when they left their homes their bread was fresh out of the oven. They then ask Joshua and the leaders to make a covenant with them so they will not be destroyed. Because Joshua and the leaders believe that these people are from a distant land, they believe them and make the covenant. Joshua 9:14-15 then states:
So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.”
The phrase “but did not ask counsel from the Lord” is a recipe for disaster. Yes, God calls us to live wisely. Yes, God calls us to apply his righteous rules to relationship situations. But we still must inquire of the Lord. We still must seek the Holy Spirit’s personal leading about the decisions we make.
If you seek the Lord’s counsel, he will often spare you from getting hurt by someone.
5. God Will Use “Faithful Wounds From a Friend” to Protect You from Getting Hurt By a Secret Enemy
When we really want something, it can be very easy to get mad at anyone who seems to be getting in our way. But those who love us are often the only ones willing to tell us what we don’t want to hear. As Proverbs 27:6, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.”
These “wounds of a friend” don’t always need to come from a literal friend. Sometimes God will tell you what you don’t want to hear through a YouTube video, a podcast, or a book. Sometimes God will tell you what you don’t want to hear through a sermon or through what someone said at Bible study.
While these words you don’t want to hear may be painful, remember that God is also faithful. He wants what is best for you. If you know God is telling you what you don’t want to hear about someone, just know that he is trying to protect you from getting hurt. Remember, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.”