The Word To Live By: 7-22-26
Phil Waggoner
Fear not, for I am with you; be not
dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you,
yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. Isaiah
41:10
The Word To Live By: This is an oldie but goodie. I remember hearing this tag team preached by two young preachers, one from El Paso and the other from western Kansas, in a Holiday Inn in Omaha one of the first months after I had decided to give my life over to Jesus (a decision that changed the direction my life was going dramatically). But I remember learning about all these promises from God pertaining to life and godliness and realizing that I was seeing a little progress but not that big booming change that people were talking about. Now, these two guys were talking about not being afraid because fear would block faith from working, and not so much the feeling of fear, because sometimes you can’t do anything about that, but acting on that feeling was what is detrimental to faith. But my mind wasn’t on so much as what they were saying about fear as it was on the second part of that scripture, “I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you…” I knew enough about strengthening and helping to know that it was a journey, not an immediate result. If I have a goal to be able to bench press 100 pounds and I start by lifting a 50 pound bar bell and bench press it ten times a day, I’m going to get stronger and eventually will be able to bench press a 100-pound bar bell. On the same course, a strength and conditioning coach is going to help me every day to achieve that goal by showing me and telling me not only what to do but how to do it. The Holy Spirit is the righteous right hand of God. And the Bible is the handbook He coaches you out of. Here’s the cool thing about all of this - the Holy Spirit is always with you to instruct you out of the book. Our job for all of this to happen is to not let fear stop us from acting on what the Holy Spirit is showing us to do. The word, dismay, has an element of panic in its definition. Panic will cause you to make the wrong decision at the wrong time and go the wrong way. Paul told Timothy that God hadn’t given him a spirit of fear but one of power, and love, and a sound mind. A sound mind trumps panic every time. So don’t let life dismay you; instead, move forward in the power and the love of God and a sound mind.
Read through the Bible in a year: 1 Corinthians 9; 2 Kings 1-2; Amos 7;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 22, Matthew 11:16-30, Acts 22:
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160