To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is.
– Proverbs 15:23
I love this verse. I think about different people in my life, different times in my life when I was looking for counsel, or not even looking for counsel, just going through my day and someone comes along and speaks such a good word into my life, who speaks good wisdom that I need at that point or encouragement that I didn’t even know I needed, and I’m so thankful. For the texts that people will send here or there that just say, “Hey. I just want to encourage you in this way,” a word like that goes so far, especially when you’re walking through something that maybe even nobody else knows. And in that moment, somebody just says, “Hey. I want to encourage you in this way.”
Proverbs 15:23 teaches us to use our words to serve others.
That’s what I picture when I hear Proverbs 15:23 say, “A word in season,” for like a word that’s just right for this time in your life. “How good it is,” exclamation point. Or when you’re asking a question, you’re looking for an answer, Proverbs 15:23 says, “To make an apt answer is a joy to a man.” It always is good when we’re really wrestling with something, over a question and we go to someone for help and they help us see the answer, what joy that brings. So I want to encourage us to pray for this in our lives, to pray for people who speak joy like this into our lives, who speak good words in season to us, and then obviously for us to pray that we would speak these kind of words into others’ lives.
Even today, can I just challenge you with soon as we pray, according to Proverbs 15:23, get on your phone or turn to somebody around you and just give a good word in season. Just tell somebody some kind of encouragement and then pray for wisdom when somebody’s seeking counsel or seeking answers, that God would help you by the power of His spirit according to His Word to give apt answers, good words in season that bring joy to others.
Proverbs 15:23 reminds us we should use our words for the sake of the gospel.
Oh, God, we pray for this in our lives. We all want this kind of joy. We want these good words in season. God, we pray that you would help us to be attentive to the words of wisdom that are being spoken to us or around us. God, we pray for people in our lives who speak good words in season, and we pray that you would help us to be those kinds of people in others’ lives. Even today. God, help us to speak good words in season into people’s lives, to give apt answers when people come to us with questions or concerns or counsel that they’re looking for. God, we pray that you would help us to make apt answers that bring joy to others, to give words and season that are good for others’ souls.
Ultimately oh, God, we pray that you’d help us to do this with the gospel. There’s people around us who don’t know you. God, help us to speak the greatest word in the world today to somebody. Help us to weave threads of the gospel in the fabric of all of our conversations today in ways that we pray will lead others to know you and your love for them.
Prayer for the Punjabi People
And God, we pray for those who’ve never, ever heard this word… For Punjabi people all over the world in India… And then spread out from India and all kinds of different places.
God, we pray for Punjabi men, women, and children. We pray for the spread of the word of Jesus… The greatest word in the world to them, so that they might be saved by it. God, please, may it be so. We pray all this according to your Word in Proverbs 15:23, which we love. What a good word your Word is to us every day. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
