Daily Devotionals

Devotional: August 7th

For Reading and Meditation:
     Ecclesiastes 12:11

Living as he did in an agricultural community, it is easy to see why Solomon likens words to goads. A goad is a long stick with an iron point that is jabbed against the tough hindquarters of an animal to make it increase its speed. Words motivate and urge us to action. The New Living translation used a different picture to illustrate the same point: "A wise teacher's words spur students to action and emphasize important truths. The collected sayings of the wise are like guidance from a shepherd." Isn't this how Solomon used words? Words and wise sayings are also like firmly embedded nails, says Solomon. Even that very phrase catches hold of the imagination. It recalls for me a vivid phrase I once heard Sir Winston Churchill use of one of his generals. "He reminds me," he said, "of an iron peg hammered into the frozen ground - firm, solid, immovable." And here's a personal confession - one of the reasons why I use so much alliteration (words with the same initial sound) is to help you remember them. This for example: "Eat enough to keep you fit and not enough to make you fat." I know people remember these statements because they sometimes quote them back to me. We must use the best and the most precise words we can when talking about Christ, remembering all the time, as C. S. Lewis said, that we are just adjectives striving to point others to the Noun. "And for people to believe that Noun," he added, "we must improve our adjectives."

O Father, help me understand that it is not increasing my vocabulary that You are after, but doing the best with what I already have.You deserve nothing but the best. May I therefore be the best I can be. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

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