The Word To Live By: 1-31-26
Phil Waggoner
Also [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up). Luke 18:1
The Word To Live By: I use this scripture from the Amplified Translation because one of the problems that we have with prayer is that when we don’t see timely results, we tend to give up. The Bible is pretty clear in 1 John 5:14,15, that “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” Rule #1 of prayer: If you are praying for the will of God to be done (what the Bible says is His will), then don’t faint, lose heart, and give up. Rule #2: Pray in the name of Jesus. John 14:14, If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” Proverbs 18:10, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteousness run to it and are safe.” Philippians 2:9-11, “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” And when your prayer has to do with conflict with others, pray for them. Luke 6:27, “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Never is the reason for this more apparent than Paul praying for his enemies on the way to Rome and facing a ship-wrecking, fourteen-day storm. He warned them not to go, but they went anyway. Acts 27:23,24, “I urge you to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of like among you, but only of the ship. For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.” The wording of the last sentence tells me that Paul had prayed for his enemies, people who hated him, and for those that had mistreated him. Read chapter 28. Paul’s prayer didn’t stop the storm, but it changed the lives of the men who were with him on the ship and the people of the Island of Malta and eventually, in Rome, the world.
Read through the Bible in a year: Luke 22:39-71; Genesis 40; Psalms 31;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 31, Matthew 16:1-14, Romans 3
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160