There’s a way of moving through ordinary life that quietly honors Jesus: paying attention to who’s watching, choosing wisdom over impulse, and treating every moment like it matters. Today’s verse pushes us to think beyond our own circle and to handle our time as something redeemable—something that can be turned into love, witness, and worship.

Wisdom That Makes Strangers Feel Seen

When Paul talks about acting wisely toward outsiders, he’s not asking for a sales pitch—he’s inviting a way of life that makes the gospel believable. Wisdom is what helps you discern when to speak, when to listen, when to step back, and when to step in. And if you feel like you don’t have that kind of wisdom on tap, God isn’t stingy with it: “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

Wisdom toward outsiders also means we don’t treat people like projects. We remember they’re image-bearers, not arguments. Sometimes the wisest thing you can do is carry peace into a room that’s used to tension: “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1). Gentleness can be the doorway that makes someone curious about the Savior who is “gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29).

Redeeming Time, Not Just Spending It

Time is going somewhere whether you notice it or not. The call isn’t to cram more into your schedule, but to treat your minutes as mission—small windows where God might open a conversation, soften a heart, or steady someone who’s falling apart. Scripture presses this urgency: “Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15–16).

Redeeming time often looks painfully ordinary: showing up on time, doing excellent work, keeping your word, asking a coworker a sincere question, putting the phone down to look someone in the eye. And when you’re tempted to think it’s too small to matter, remember Jesus’ logic of light: “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Ordinary faithfulness can become someone else’s first glimpse of God.

Intentional Words in an Unintentional World

Outsiders don’t only read our actions; they feel our tone. The next verse after today’s is a needed companion: “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6). Gracious speech isn’t weak speech—it’s speech strong enough to stay kind under pressure, truthful without being cruel, clear without being smug.

And when the moment comes to talk about Jesus, the goal isn’t to win—it’s to witness. “Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15). Hope explained with gentleness is powerful. It tells the truth about Christ while also showing the heart of Christ.

Father, thank You for Your wisdom and for every moment You place in my hands. Help me walk wisely toward those who don’t yet know You; make my words gracious and my time redeemed for Your glory. Lead me today to one intentional act of love that points to Jesus.

When God gave to Moses the blueprint of the Tabernacle He was careful to include every detail; then, lest Moses should get the notion that he could improve on the original plan, God warned him solemnly, And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shown thee in the mount. God, not Moses, was the architect. To decide the plan was the prerogative of the Deity. No one dare alter it so much as a hairbreadth.

The New Testament Church also is built after a pattern. Not the doctrines only but the methods are divinely given. The doctrines are expressly stated in so many words. Some of the methods followed by the early New Testament Church had been given by direct command; others were used by God's specific approval, having obviously been commanded the apostles by the Spirit. The point is that when the New Testament canon was closed the blueprint for the age was complete. God has added nothing since that time.

From God's revealed plan we depart at our peril. Every departure has two consequences, the immediate and the remote. The immediate touches the individual and those close to him; the remote extends into the future to unknown times, and may expand so far as to influence for evil the whole Church of God on earth....

I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. - Psalm 40:17

The joy and triumph which ring through the words of Christ, "I am not alone," suggest the sufficiency of that Divine presence for all the needs of the heart. Christ felt that He was not alone, that the dreariness of the solitude had passed away, because the Father’s presence was enough. He was the loneliest of men, and He was also the most rich in sufficient companionship - the most sad and the most happy. So the surface and the depth of His life present the sharpest contrasts. Opposites meet in Him: He was the Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief, "and yet God anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows." He was "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making the world rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." For Him the Father’s presence was sunshine in the darkness; summer in the depth of winter; life in the very jaws of death.

And for you and me the Father’s presence will be enough, too. It will not be exactly the same thing as the society and communion of dear ones, and there may be a sense of loss and pain with us, as there was with Him, but yet the blessed consciousness of God’s presence will satisfy our hearts. So, whether we have to walk a lonely road, or are compassed by lovers and friends, and yet feel often much apart, let us lift our hearts to God in Christ, and He will come to be our companion. God and you will make society enough for you. " Thou hast made me exceeding glad through Thy countenance."

We never know the blessedness of God’s presence till we have felt the loneliness of life. " I was left alone and I saw this great vision." We must detach ourselves from earth, and shut our doors about us before we can have the vision of God. Solitude is the mother of all great and holy thoughts. To enter into thyself, said one of the mystics, is to ascend to Heaven. He who is at all times alone, said another, is worthy of God who is then present. Prayer is the flight of the lonely soul to the alone God.

The blessed communion between Christ and God, the Man Christ Jesus and His Divine Father, was broken once. " My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Broken once - wherefore? How? Because He, in the depth of His love, in the might of His sympathy, in the reality of His union with mankind, so identified Himself with us, in our sins and in their punishment, that the last issue of sin fell upon Him, and He tasted the extremes! bitterness of the cup, in the separation from God, which is eternal death. That was for us and for all men. " I could wish myself accursed," said the servant. The Master did more than wish; He made Himself a curse for us. He bore that last, most awful, consequence of sin, and was left alone, bereft of God, in the darkness, that we might never lose the light of God’s face, nor the strength and joy of our Father’s presence.

Let us bow with hushed and grateful spirits before that miracle and mystery of love, and yield ourselves to Him. Trusting to Him, we shall never be solitary any more, for He hath said, " Lo! I am with you always."