In her early years as a Christian author, Gayle often received winsome gifts from her publisher. Bouquets of flowers, chocolates, boxes of herbal teas. All lovely. But over time, her publisher began to send gifts with lasting value. A one-year Bible, devotionals, and prayer journals. As she used them, Gayle became a more mature believer—less distracted by frilly gifts and more committed to using her life to lead others to Christ.
This approach recalls Timothy’s growth under the mentoring of the apostle Paul.. Stressing spiritual maturity, Paul advised, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
Then Paul added, “Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly” (v. 16). He added, “Flee the evil desires of youth . . . don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments . . . the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful” (vv. 22-24).
Paul’s wise advice offers believers one other key benefit. Even opponents of Christ, when they see our mature choices in Him, “come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil” (v. 26). So “growing up” in God has eternal outcomes beyond ourselves. Let’s not wait, therefore, to grow up in our faith. Others will benefit as well.
Small-town physician Ezdan nurtured a grand dream for his young daughter Eleanor. She has Down Syndrome, and he hoped to open a business to provide paid work for her future. Feeling “terrified” to pursue his dream, he took an online course on how to start a business. Then he and his wife launched a family bakery in their Wyoming town, and it’s thriving. “It has become a real business, with a staff,” Ezdan said. Eleanor, now grown, works the cash register and connects with online customers. “Everybody in town knows who she is,” says Ezdan. His leap of faith in planning for Eleanor’s future reflects his choice to be prudent.
It's a classic biblical virtue. Prudence is an element of wisdom that God ordains for our current and future planning. “The folly of fools is deception,” says Proverb 14:8. But “the wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways.” Rather than worry about the future, or do nothing about it, prudent people look to God for wisdom to plan for it.
In fact, prudence is related to the Latin word providens, or “provident”—meaning to foresee for future provision. “The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps” (v. 15). Foreseeing what could happen, they work sensibly to build a safety net—a strong course of action for the wise!
With clear-eyed faith, may we live prudently, in step with God.
A friend’s wife, a master seamstress, made a loving plan before she passed away from a long illness. She donated all her sewing equipment to our town’s sewing guild, providing sewing machines, cutting tables, and more for classes teaching newly arrived immigrants. “I counted 28 boxes of fabric alone,” her husband told us. “Six women came by to pick up everything. Their students are hard workers, eager to learn a skill.”
Others describe such newcomers in less flattering ways. The plight of even legal immigrants has become a divisive issue.
Moses, however, issued God’s view. “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners” (Exodus 23:9). He further shared God’s decree regarding strangers. “When you reap the harvest of your land . . . do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the
God also declared, “‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the
God set the standard. May He bless our hearts to show love to the strangers among us.
Meggie’s ten years of drug use kept her in and out of jail. Without a life change, she’d soon return. Then she met Hans, a former addict who almost lost his hand when a vein ruptured due to his substance abuse. “That was the first time I cried out to God,” Hans said. God’s answer prepared him to be a peer specialist for an organization that coordinates recovery for jailed addicts.
Called Stone Soup, the program is helping an American jail provide formerly imprisoned people with support to reenter their communities. Through the plan, Meggie moved into a sober-living house and has stayed sober. Hans now helps her and others with job placement, educational options, treatment, and family resources—a coordinated approach.
The Bible describes the strength of wise partnering. “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). Alone, however, “Pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up” (v. 10).
Like the “Stone Soup” folktale, where a hungry traveler invites townspeople to each share one ingredient to make a delicious soup for all, the Bible confirms we’re stronger and better together (v. 12). God’s plan is for us to live in community, helping others and receiving help in return. That’s no fairy tale; it’s truth for life.
On a frigid November day, our church hoped to fill two hundred backpacks to distribute to the homeless. Preparing to help fill them, I sorted through the items donated, praying to find new gloves, hats, socks, blankets. Bowls of chili and sandwiches would also be shared with those who were to receive the gifts. Then I noticed an item that surprised me: washcloths. I’d been focusing on helping people stay warm and get fed. Someone had remembered to help our recipients feel clean.
The Bible speaks about another kind of “clean”—cleanliness of heart and spirit. Jesus pointed this out as He decried the hypocrisy of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. They kept the smallest requirements of the law, but “neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness” (Matthew 23:23). Christ told them, “You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean” (vv. 25-26).
Acting as if we are spiritually spotless is just a show if we don’t seek the cleansing found only in Christ. “What can wash away my sin?” asks an old gospel song. “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” A new washcloth can be a gift to wash us on the outside. Jesus cleans us on the inside, washing away even the worst of our sins.
Two eight-year-old boys in Maine—a rural American state—made their mark by wearing business suits to school on Wednesdays. Soon “Dapper Wednesdays” became a favorite day, as other classmates and school staff dressed up too. James, who launched the idea, loved hearing compliments. “It just made my heart feel really good.” Their Wednesday attire set the kids apart as proud students of their school.
Our spiritual clothing, which sets us apart as God’s own, gladdens our hearts, too. “My soul rejoices in my God,” said Isaiah, “for He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10).
As the Israelites went into exile, their clothing—spiritual and material—was threadbare and worn. Isaiah offered them a hopeful promise: God’s Spirit would “bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (v. 3).
The same promise rests on God’s people today. Jesus said that by His Spirit we would be “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Christ provides us with a wardrobe of compassion, kindness, gentleness, and patience (Colossians 3:12). Clothed by Him, we reflect His love to the world.
Nancy feared the future, seeing only trouble. Her husband Tom had fainted three times during a hiking trip in rural Maine in 2015. But doctors at a small nearby hospital found nothing wrong. At a larger medical center, where doctors conducted additional tests, they also found no problem. “I was very afraid,” Nancy stated. As her husband was released, she questioned the cardiologist one last time, asking, “What do we do now?” He gave her a word of wisdom that forever changed her outlook. “Go live your life,” he said. “It wasn’t in a flippant way,” Nancy recalls. “It was his advice to us.”
Such guidance captures Jesus’ instruction in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25). Such guidance doesn’t say to ignore medical or other problems or symptoms. Instead, Christ simply said, “Don’t worry.” He then asked, “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (v. 27).
The prophet Isaiah offered similar wisdom. “Say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong, do not fear; your God will come’” (Isaiah 35:4). For Nancy and Tom, they’re inspired now to walk more than five miles a day. No longer walking with worry, they step out with joy.
Would they win by arguing? Never, a small-town leader warned residents in Adirondack Park where a pitched battle between environmentalists and small-business owners ignited the “Adirondack Wars.” The name described their fight whether to save the area’s pristine wilderness in upstate New York or develop it.
“Go back wherever you came from!” a local leader had shouted at an environmentalist. But soon a new message emerged. “Don’t yell at each other. Try to talk to each other.” A Common Ground Alliance was formed to build bridges between warring factions. Civic dialogue led to progress—with nearly a million acres of wild land protected even as Adirondack towns grew more prosperous than they’d been in twenty years.
Peaceful coexistence is a start, but Paul taught something even better. To the new believers in Colosse, he said, “Rid yourselves of . . . anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips” (Colossians 3:8). Paul urged them to exchange their old ways for a new nature in Christ. “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience,” he wrote (v. 12).
The invitation is offered today to all believers: surrender our old cantankerous lives to new life in Christ. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace” (v. 15). Then, in our peace, the world will see Jesus.
At Meredith’s wedding, her mother read a beautiful Scripture from 1 Corinthians. Often called “the love chapter” of the Bible, the thirteenth chapter sounded perfect for the occasion. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud” (v. 4). Listening, I wondered if modern brides and grooms knew what prompted the apostle’s stirring words. Paul wasn’t writing a love poem. The apostle penned a plea to a divided church in an effort to heal its raging divisions.
Simply put, the church at Corinth “was a mess,” says scholar Douglas A. Campbell. Seething problems included incest, prostitution, and rivalry among leaders. Lawsuits between members weren’t uncommon. Worship was often chaotic—with those speaking in tongues competing to be heard first, and others prophesying to look impressive (see 1 Corinthians 14).
Underlying this chaos, says Campbell, was “a basic failure in relating to one another in love.” To show the more excellent way, Paul preached love because “love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away” (13:8).
Paul’s loving reminders can certainly encourage a wedding party. May they also inspire all of us to daily live out love and simple kindness too.
