The Word To Live By:10-11-25
Phil Waggoner
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions.” Mark 11:25
The Word to live by: I don’t know why, but I have never paid much attention to the word “stand” in this scripture. I guess I always look at it as a physical position when you are praying. But when I read Daniel 6:10, I saw that Daniel was kneeling and I thought, “Wait a minute; Jesus said to stand and pray.” (Now, I don’t think there is anything wrong with kneeling or standing or sitting or lying down, for that matter, when you pray. That thought just jumped out at me.) So, as I began to look at it and study it, I found out it meant a final position you have taken and don’t intend to move off of. When the king made a law that you couldn’t pray to anyone but him, Daniel had already established, long before the law, that he wasn’t going to serve or worship or pray to any other god but the one true God. That was the principle he was standing on when he prayed. And because that was the principle he was standing on, he had to forgive the men who manipulated the king into making the law that was going to get him thrown into the lion’s den. We see the words “stand” and “forgive” a lot in the New Testament. In Matthew 6:10, He said (Pray this way) “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What’s part of God’s will in heaven? To forgive. Jesus’ last words were, “Forgive them, Father …” Matthew 6:12 (still under the mandate to pray this way). “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Forgiveness, like love, is not a feeling; it’s an action. You say, “I forgive them!” And then you act like it’s true. “But you don’t understand how bad they made me feel!” I understand that Jesus went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil because God was with Him, and those same people turned around and demanded His crucifixion. You must forgive if you want your prayers answered. This isn’t even close to what I wanted to show you when I started this, but we all need to hear it, some more than others. I will try and get back on track tomorrow.
Read through the Bible in a year: Revelation 11; Esther 1; Psalms 105:1-25;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 11, Luke 8:1-28, 1 Timothy 2
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160