Helpful Words

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

HELPFUL WORDS

Acts 20:17-21

17 From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. 18 When they arrived, he said to them: "You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews. 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

NIV

We are coming to the close of the traveling adventures and now get one more glimpse into the heart of Paul. He tells the elders of the church how he did not hesitate to preach anything that would be helpful to them. This has to be our life lesson. When we are with fellow believers either in public or in our homes, our words should be those that are helpful to them. This has to imply that there should be no words that would be considered gossip, no words that would be considered as complaining about anything about the church, the pastor, or even other believers. Such words would certainly not be helpful for the listener of such words, but might rather be cause for dissention or dissatisfaction. Of course when believers gather we also spend time speaking of sports, the weather, sports figures, the latest whatever we have done or place we have gone, maybe even a little politics, or rather complaining about some politician, but it seems seldom do we spent much time speaking words that would be helpful to others. It is difficult to even imagine that Paul engaged in such meaningless conversations but was wholly focused on words that would be helpful to the spiritual birth and growth of others. Why shouldn’t we do the same? Why shouldn’t we spent our time with other believers focused on the word of God which helps people grow in their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? We could also share what God has done in our lives, how he has healed us, provided for us, directed our paths, and ordered our footsteps. All such words would be helpful for others to grow in their faith. Of course all this should done with the quality we see Paul had, with great humility and with tears. This would certainly imply the lack of proud boasting of our knowledge of the word, or even our appearance of being that way. How we share our words of encouragement to help others should be done in humility, which implies a deep desire to benefit those who we speak with. But most of all we should be focused on words that are helpful.