40Acts - Day 10: ' SPUR ON '

Our words have immense capacity for good. When we use them encouragingly, generously, and genuinely, there are few things that have more power. A timely word can change the course of someone's day, or even someone's life. 

Use words wisely.

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. 

(Proverbs 25:11 ESV)

‘A word fitly spoken,’ says Proverbs 25:11, ’is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.’  

Other versions have ‘golden apples in a silver basket’ or ‘on a silver tray’.  A shining, striking image that portrays the effect of good words: they create a relationship and invite more words to be echoed in reply, like the light between two beautiful reflective surfaces.  Generous words given to us become words that can flow out generously to others.

We can all think of golden apples that have been handed to us. Many of mine came from a student teacher who, although he only spent one term working in the school where I was a pupil, is one of the adults I remember most fondly. I was dealing with that common 13-year-old’s problem of feeling completely invisible, but this teacher never walked past without a quick, encouraging word or two. He could see me! Later, he wrote in my yearbook two words: ‘Never change.’  Two golden apples for a confused, insecure teenager – treasured for years.

Jesus, too, is a great giver of golden apples. ’You are the salt of the earth,’ he told the gaggle of uncertain fishermen who followed him around; ‘you are the light of the world’ (Matthew 5:13–14 NIV). Later, as he was about to leave them, he told the same group of people that he called them his friends, that he had chosen them to bear fruit, and that they should love one another (John 15:14–17).  

Jesus’ generous words are meant for those of us who follow him today, too. If we let them take root in us, they will eventually produce the fruit that he promises, and then we’ll give it to someone who needs it: golden apples, on a silver tray.

Today's blog was written by Amy Robinson. 

Find out more about her and support her chosen charity here.

For today's challenge in full - click here