“Evil pursueth sinners: But to the righteous good shall be repaid. A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: And the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. Much food is in the tillage of the poor: But there is that is destroyed for want of judgment. He that spareth his rod hateth his son: But he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: But the belly of the wicked shall want.”
Proverbs 13:21-25 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.13.21-25.KJV
Don’t Lose Heart
As we start getting older, our bodies begin to change.
Muscles might ache. Hair might gradually turn gray. Vision and hearing might eventually get less sharp. And we, or someone we love, might even struggle with significant or devastating health challenges.
The apostle Paul once offered some ageless wisdom to the believers in Corinth, Greece, which can still be helpful for us today:
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV
Paul knew what it was like to face hard things; he’d been beaten, shipwrecked, snake bitten, and imprisoned.
Earlier in the letter, he’d said, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NIV)
The ripple effects of sin’s existence in the world might frustrate us physically, but it ...