NOVEMBER 9, Isaiah 40:28-31

“I hate homework,” complained Suat as she and her brother sat at the kitchen table. She jabbed the sharp tip of her pencil at a long division problem. Tom lifted his nose out of his science book. “I don’t mind doing science homework,” he said. “These magnets are interesting. Watch this.” He took a nail and rubbed it across a magnet several times. Then he held the nail close to a straight pin. “See? It picked up the pin just as if it were a real magnet,” he said.

“Wow!” exclaimed Suat. “Why does it do that?” “Some magnetism got rubbed off onto the nail,” explained Tom.

“Can I try it?” asked Suat. She took the nail and held it over a few paper clips. She giggled as one sprang up toward the nail. Next, she took a clip from her hair and held the nail over that. This time, nothing happened. “My book says the nail soon loses its power to attract things if it isn’t rubbed against the magnet again,” said Tom. “That’s why it didn’t pick up that clip. To keep it working, it has to be rubbed over the magnet quite often.”

Suat reluctantly returned the nail and went back to her math paper while he continued to tinker with the magnet. A little later, he spoke again. “This nail is just like a Christian,” he said. “Like a Christian!” exclaimed Suat. “That doesn’t make sense. What are you talking about?”

Tom illustrated by rubbing the nail against the magnet as he continued to explain. “Just like the nail gets power from the magnet, we receive power from God to bear a good testimony for the Lord Jesus and attract other people to Him as we witness.”

Suat nodded. “And if we don’t stay close to the Lord by obeying Him and reading the Bible and praying, we begin to lose our power to attract others to Jesus,” she suggested. “Then we’re like a plain old nail again.” She grinned at her brother. “You’re pretty smart to think of that illustration. I’m impressed!”

Tom grinned too. “Good! Keep thinking like that,” he said. “Of course, my Bible teacher used a magnet like this for an object lesson last week, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have thought of it myself.”

Thought: Does your life cause others to be attracted to the Gospel?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, may Thou grant me the strength and power to live a life obedient to You and to be a good witness for You. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.