Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Monday, November 12, 2018

"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty."¹

A man bought a parrot at an auction after some heavy bidding. "I hope this bird talks," he told the auctioneer.

"Talk," the auctioneer replied. "Who do you think has been bidding against you for the past ten minutes?"

Sad to say, we seem to be living in a day when a person's word has less and less value. Once upon a time a man's word was his bond. Not any more, I'm afraid. For many people today their word doesn't mean a thing. We're pretty adept at parroting what we think people want to hear.

I remember one of my college professors teaching us that a person's character could be measured by what value he or she put on their word. People who don't keep their word simply cannot be trusted. This principle applies, not only to some politicians who promise anything to get votes, but also to every one of us who do not keep our promises or our word.

Fortunately, however, of one thing we can be certain, God always keeps his Word and always keeps his promises. To be Christ-like, we need to do the same! For after all, it's what we do, not what we say, that speaks the loudest of all.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please make me a man/woman of my word so I can always be trusted to say what I mean, mean what I say, and do what I say I will do. And thank you that your Word can always be trusted. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Proverbs 14:23 (NIV).

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