“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: And whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: Whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul. It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: But every fool will be meddling. The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; Therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing. Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; But a man of understanding will draw it out. Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: But a faithful man who can find?”
Proverbs 20:1-6 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.20.1-6.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 ...