 |
|
| Volume 26 Number 1 January 2024 |
Page 8 |
|
|
| Volume 26 Number 1 January 2024 |
Page 8 |
Robert Johnson
God purposely created every human being with the need for relationships. We need personal contact with others for us to have whole and healthy lives. This contact isn’t just about life in the flesh – for our physical well-being – but contact is necessary for our emotional well-being as well. Personal contact is vital spiritually, too. If we ever hope to enjoy eternal life, we will attain it through encouragement, help, strength and prompts to persevere. However, what about us? The path of personal interaction isn’t a one-way street but one that travels to and from us.
One place we find encouragement that helps us overcome temptation to sin – to be our best and to develop our talents and abilities in Christ – comes from the examples we find in Scripture. Those lives recorded in the Bible were real people facing challenges, in their day and time, to live for God. How many people in Scripture commended themselves to us as positive examples of godliness – people who lived by faith and whose lives encourage us to live by faith (James 5:10)? Even those in Scripture, who strayed from God – whose lives stand opposed to all that is right and good – serve as examples of where sin and wrong choices can lead (2 Peter 2:6). Not just from Scripture, but those brothers and sisters in Christ with whom we interact today can help us to keep fighting the good fight of faith, or they can lead us astray, too. Paul reminded Timothy of the help he could offer others by living for Christ. “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12 NKJV). How many depended on Timothy to help them in everyday, faithful living? To whom can we look today to encourage us in our faith?
We should not be so caught up in ourselves, however, that we forget there are others who look to us as examples – either good or bad. What kind of influence do our lives offer to those around us today? What kind of example will we leave behind when we have passed on? Solomon said we should be concerned about the example we set in our families. “Grandchildren are the crown of the elderly, and the pride of children is their fathers” (Proverbs 17:6 ESV). Christ should mean enough to us that even in casual settings, the Gospel is working in us to show others the positive virtues which are part of who we are and which are integral to our lifestyle, to our speech and to our actions. “Have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5 LSB). The psalmist, in Psalm 71, more advanced in age, considered how he lived and how he should spend the time still left to him. “O God, You have taught me from my youth; And to this day I declare Your wondrous works. Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come” (Psalm 71:17-18 NKJV). From the time we obey the Gospel until we depart from this life, we should live for Christ (Romans 1:16-17; Galatians 5:8; Revelation 2:10).
We need others in our youth to show us how powerfully Christ can work in our lives. We need the example of others who have dealt with challenges and never gave up for us to grow in our faith. As we mature and grow old, we should show encouragement, just as others have done for us. May we have the attitude of David, who wrote, “Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered” (Psalm 40:5). Throughout our lives, let’s speak of God’s wonderous works and plans. Let us be encouraged and be an encouragement. As we find hope in Scripture, as we are helped by others and as we help others, may we all continue together on the pilgrimage to eternity. It makes life all that more precious to know we have been helped and have helped each other along the way.
