WEEK 50 – DAY 4

VIRTUOUS ONE

Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:12

Gladys Aylward is a spiritual hero to both of us. We have been inspired by her tenacity in insisting that the Lord had called her to minister in China no matter how much people tried to dissuade her. Susan can relate to that since she had to persuade people to admit her to graduate school despite the physical limitations of her earth-suit. Gladys went to China as an assistant to a missionary who was building an inn for travelers and intended to tell them Bible stories while they ate. When the missionary died shortly after Gladys’s arrival, she assumed responsibility for the inn and the mission. There is a remarkable story of Gladys single-handedly ending a prison riot at the request of the governing authority. That man and his soldiers were afraid to enter and dared Gladys saying that if her God was real, He would protect her! God did just that. She listened to the prisoner’s concerns and instigated prison reform on their behalf. Not many Chinese people were open to her gospel message. However, she still earned the name ‘Ai-weh-deh’, Chinese for ‘Virtuous One’.  May we so live among non-believers that they will see the character of Christ in us and be drawn to Him! For more on Gladys Alward, go to: http://www.heroesofhistory.com/page46.html

Father, may our behavior and the good deeds the Holy Spirit prompts us to do, be a light that shines for Your kingdom. May the integrity in which we live, bring glory to Your Holy Name.