The Word To Live By: 9-1-25
Phil Waggoner
Now Elijah the Tishbite, from the Gilead settlers, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, I stand before Him, and there will be no dew or rain during these years except by my command!” 2 Kings 1:1
The Word to live by: Though Elijah was an anointed prophet of God, and He was obeying God when he said, “There shall be no rain until I command it again,” what I want you to see is that He was a human like you and me, obeying God. One thing I have learned in the past almost 50 years is that when you obey God, there is always an anointing from God on your obedience, and even the littlest things that seem unimportant at the time will lead to great victories. James 5:17-18 says, “ Elijah was a man with a nature like ours; yet he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land. Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit.” As you can see, Elijah was a person with a nature like ours. You need to understand that about all the great men and women in the Bible that God used. They were simply people who loved God and obeyed Him. And I have also found this. It’s the little things that you obey Him in that start the ball rolling. Romans 8:28 has always been a go-to scripture for me. “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” That scripture used to come up when there was something big going on in my life, but I have learned that “all things” applies even to the little things I do. What’s important is not how big a thing I’m doing is, but that I’m doing something, no matter what the size of it is in my eyes. Just obey God. Most things that God did and does start small and grow. Abraham was one man who obeyed God, and it turned into the nation of Israel whose people cover the face of the earth today. We’ve got to stop looking at small things that seem inconsequential and pursue them through faith in God. I want to spend a few days in this chapter studying this doctrine.
Read through the Bible in a year: John 9:1-23; 2 Chronicles 6; Malachi 2:17-3:18;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 1, Mark 4:1-21, 2 Corinthians 3
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160