The Word To Live By: 1-19-26
Phil Waggoner
WTLB 1-19-27
Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. “Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18,19
The Word To Live By: You can control what you think about and what you ponder by talking to yourself about the things you want to think about. I don’t want to think about past mistakes in a way that makes me feel condemned. I don’t want to think about things I can’t do anything about. I want to think about things that will produce positive effects in my life and the life of the people with whom I come in contact. So, if I find myself thinking about what I should have done but didn’t, or said, but didn’t, my first question is, “How can I make sure that doesn’t happen again?” After I answer that question, I don’t let it occupy my thought life. There are times in your life that you can see the Spirit of God working on your behalf. But when you can’t see Him working, that doesn’t mean He’s not doing something you are not aware of. He is always working to bring His will to pass in your life. God is the God of impossible. Paul said in Romans 8:1,2, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” How do you invoke the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? By speaking the Word of life to a condemning thought life. We know from Joshua 1:8 that meditating on the Word of God will bring success. We tend to think about success as accomplishing something in the natural - a successful day at work, or victory over a sickness or bad habit. But have you considered it will bring you success in your thought life too? Here’s something I do as a form of meditating on the Word. I tell myself stories from the Bible with me being there. For instance, the other day I was embedded with the Israeli army in the valley of Elah, with the Philistine army on the other side. We were scared spitless because they had this huge warrior who kept coming out and taunting us to fight him. This guy had a sword and a spear as big as a man, and a guy who carried a shield the size of a mountain in front of him. Nobody was about to fight him, including King Saul, who was the biggest guy we had. About the third day of this, we were getting worried that Saul was going to force one of us to go out there anyway when Eliab’s little brother, David, showed up with a cart full of food for him and his other two brothers. This little kid (actually, he looked like he might be 15 or 16) hears this giant’s threats (and Saul’s rewards) and says he’ll fight him. That brought a moment of levity to the camp and relieved some of the tension as we all got a good laugh out of it. But he was serious, stating that he had killed a lion and a bear and because God was on his side, he would drop this turkey (actually, he called him an uncircumcised Philistine) like a hot knife through the cheese on his wagon. Anyway, long story short, this kid picks up a handful of rocks and puts one of them in his slingshot and runs out towards this big lug, swinging his slingshot. Eliab and his brothers closed their eyes because they didn’t want to watch their little brother die. David lets go of the rock and hits the giant right between the eyes and it sticks there. Then, he runs over and picks up his sword and cuts the giant’s head off, holds it up for us to see and starts swinging it around like a dreidel on the kitchen table. Well, when we saw that, we took off across the plain and chased those Philistines off the mountain. Nobody was expecting to see God move like that, especially that devil giant.
Read through the Bible in a year: Luke 14:25-35; Genesis 26; Psalms 19;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 19, Matthew 10:1-21, Acts 19:
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160