The Word To Live By: 3-4-26
Phil Waggoner
Patience can persuade a prince, and soft speech can break bones. Proverbs 25:15
The Word To Live By: Be patient with your faith in the Word of God. Don’t get excited when you don’t see what you want to see right away. Stay calm, speak calm, and smile at the devil. Some of you might remember the third fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1975. They were both heavy weight boxers and world champions. In it, Ali came out and laid against and bounced off the ropes, causing Joe to throw a lot of ineffective punches. It actually looked like Ali was losing. In the final round, Joe was so tired he could hardly stand up and Mohamad Ali tore him up, winning the fight. For some reason, this scripture made me think of that. Not that Mohamad Ali was known for soft speech but in that fight, I remember him walking back to his corner between rounds with a confident grin on his face and Joe Frazier trudging back, frustrated. Just because you can’t see or feel your faith working doesn’t mean it isn’t. Paul exhorts us in 2 Corinthians 5 to walk by faith and not by sight. When the switch of faith is turned on, and it should always be, it’s working. When we moved into our house, there was a light switch that didn’t seem to turn anything on. About ten years after we moved in, we did an extensive remodeling job and when the electrician cut a wire that didn’t seem to be going anywhere, sparks flew. In tracing it to the very end, I found out it was connected in the fuse box but didn’t go anywhere from the switch. My point is that when that switch was turned on, the power was in there even though we couldn’t see it and it wasn’t hooked up to anything. The power of God is in the Word of God even if you can’t see it working or you don’t have it hooked up to anything in particular. Yesterday, I had a good friend who was so distraught over a particular situation in their life they literally couldn’t think straight. Five people gave them the same advice, including a high-priced lawyer. They were so overcome by fear they were afraid to make a decision. They wanted to give up and hope it just went away (WHICH IS NEVER THE RIGHT DECISION). I called one of my daughters and had her agree with me and the friend that the peace of God would come over them and they would make the right decision. Long story (very long story) short, by the late evening they calmed down, made a plan and acted on it and it was done. My point is even though it looked like the prayer wasn’t working, we stayed in faith and saw a manifestation eventually. Again, your faith and your speech contain the power to break the bones of anything the devil throws at you.
Read through the Bible in a year: Matthew 10:1-25; Leviticus 7-8; Proverbs 22;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 4, Mark 4:1-21, 2 Corinthians 3
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160