December 7

Read: Titus 2:1, 7-8

Be an example [pattern] for the believers, in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity (I Timothy 4:12, A.N.T.).

Can My Life Stand Inspection?

Hearing the bell of the ice cream wagon, Jimmie burst into the house shouting, “Can I have an ice cream cone, Mother?” Told that it was too near lunch time, he threw himself on the floor screaming. When he had calmed down, his mother scolded him about the evil of his anger and then sent him to his room to pray about it. Interested to learn what the boy would do, she listened

quietly outside the door. This is the prayer she heard: “Dear God, please help me to be a good boy. Please take away my bad temper. And while You are about it, You might take away Mother’s temper too!”

Was it a child’s misunderstanding of a mother’s discipline, or a too clear understanding of a wrong example? Can my Christian life stand the inspection of my children? My wife or husband? My friends and associates?

The proof of my sanctification does not rest in the judgment of my acquaintances — but the effectiveness of my Christian witness does. Through sanctifying power God plans to make us worthy examples of His grace. The purpose of heart cleansing and Spirit filling is to make us Christians whom God approves, and to make us the kind of Christians whom good people can admire. Last night a sanctified friend testified: “I want to live as a Christian so that no one shall need to apologize for my attitudes and behavior.” I would make that testimony my Prayer For Today.

Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me, All His wonderful passion and purity. O Thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine, Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.

— T. M. Jones