Paul says, “Our outward man perishes, but our inward man is renewed day by day.” Whenever I read those words I always think of my first wife, Lydia. Towards the end of her life she suffered from a weak heart and yet she was an amazingly strong and active woman and continued so almost to the last week of her life. And when she felt her heart, her physical heart, failing, that’s what she would say: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” She’d learned that lesson that we don’t let the external and the physical dictate to us, that there’s an inner source of life and strength which is not subject to the weakness and fluctuations of our human body.

Eventually God called her home in tremendous victory after almost fifty years of active Christian service and she left behind her a testimony of tremendous victory. But she’d learned that secret: the outward may perish but the inward is eternal. The inward is linked to God, the inward remains a source of strength when there’s little strength left in the outward.

103:T7d1,

This is Derek Prince with a word for you from the Word.

“Remember the word to Thy servant, in which Thou hast made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that Thy word has revived me.” (Psalm 119:49–50 NASB)

Has it ever occurred to you that there are times when we can remind God of something? The psalmist says here, “Remember the word to Thy servant in which Thou hast made me hope.”

You see, God gives us promises. Sometimes they come straight from the pages of His Word, the Bible. Sometimes God gives them to us in another way. It may be through a situation, it may be through a fellow Christian. But in one way or another, God makes Himself available to us in the form of His promises.

And they are given that we may have hope, that we may have comfort. They’re given to bring us renewal. The psalmist says, “Thy word has revived me” – has renewed me.

So when you get a promise from God, hold onto it, don’t let it slip, don’t let it pass out of your mind, don’t forget it. And not merely should you not forget it, but you have a right to remind God of it. You can say to God, “God, in your Word You said so-and-so. And I’m trusting in that Word and I’m asking You to make that word good. The word which gave me hope, the word that gave me comfort, even in my time of trouble, Lord, I’m holding that word up to You now. I’m believing that You are faithful, that You’ve never made a promise that You will not fulfill.”

So remind God of His promises.

104:T6de,

This is Derek Prince with a word for you from the Word.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For through me your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.” (Proverbs 9:10–11, NIV)

There’s a phrase there in those words that has always attracted me with a peculiar kind of attraction. It’s the phrase, “the knowledge of the Holy One.” Somehow, that pictures to me a place in fellowship and relationship with God where we come to know God as He really is. And when we come to know God in that way, we find, indeed, He is the Holy O

Word from the Word

*Browse Series