February 4, 2025
“For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me?” (2 Corinthians 2:2)
Every relationship we have is a two-way street. According to the Apostle Paul, whatever we send down that street comes back up the street and has a dynamic impact on that relationship. Jesus conveys this same truth with a positive spin when He teaches hypercritical people, “With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Matthew 7:2)
This was a marketplace metaphor in the culture where Jesus lived. If you were selling oats and a fellow merchant was selling wheat, when you bought from each other you could request to use their bushel standard of measurement. Paraphrased, this means whatever standard you use when you give to another person in a relationship, they will use when they give to you.
We cannot control the weather, but we can control the emotional climate that surrounds us in a relationship. Communication is not only what is said but what is heard. It is not only what is said but what is felt. How does the communication you are contributing within a relationship make the other person in that relationship feel? If you’re sending negative waves into that other person’s life, is that likely to inspire positive waves in your direction?
Paul gave us another great teaching on this subject when he wrote, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for the building up of others, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29)
Dick Woodward, 05 February 2011
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 31, 2025
“… But for this reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” (John 12:27-28)
When we have a vision, we must also have a plan. It has been said that without vision the people perish, but without a plan the vision perishes. Nehemiah not only had a vision to repair and rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, he had a plan to do it. As an enslaved exile his plan was to present his vision to the emperor for whom he was a cup bearer.
This was extremely dangerous because there was a death penalty for being sad in the presence of the emperor, or for bringing anything negative to the emperor’s attention while he was serving him. Nehemiah had the faith to pray and then present his vision to the emperor. The emperor showed empathy and compassion for Nehemiah. He not only approved his plan, he supplied everything needed to see the plan was followed to the letter.
Has God put a vision in your heart of what He wants you to do? If you have a vision, do you have a plan? In that context consider this formula for your vision:
vision + faith + sacrifice = miracle
If you have a vision and a plan to carry out the vision, are you willing to sacrifice for that vision? Are you willing to die for that vision?
Jesus had a vision and a plan. He was willing to sacrifice and die for His vision. He mandated that we follow His example. Regarding your vision and plan, are you willing to pray: “Father glorify Yourself and send me the bill. Anything Father, just glorify Yourself…”
Dick Woodward, 30 January 2010
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 28, 2025
“…what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem…” (Nehemiah 2:12)
When Nehemiah learned of the dreadful condition of the wall around Jerusalem he wept, fasted and prayed. He then became a supreme example of what it means to have a vision. His definition of vision is what God put in his heart to do. I have heard missionaries describe how they were reading the Gospels and when they got to the Great Commission they knew what God put in their hearts to do.
When I was a new believer studying for the ministry, I heard a great Bible professor survey the entire Bible. He made it so clear and relevant. I felt he was introducing us to sixty-six of his holy little friends and I wanted to spend the rest of my life getting to know them better. I also knew in my heart that God wanted me to put together a devotional, practical survey of the Bible for lay people and make it even more simple than the one I was taught. That vision eventually became a reality.
As you grow in faith and your relationship with God, have you been close enough for God to put in your heart what He wants you to do? The Bible and church history affirm the reality that God loves to work that way.
The Apostle Paul stood in chains before a king and said some beautiful words. He said he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision God gave him. (Acts 26: 19) Has God put in your heart what He wants you to do? Will you make the commitment that you will not be disobedient to that vision?
Dick Woodward, 28 January 2010
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 24, 2025
“…tell God every detail of your needs in earnest and thankful prayer…” (Philippians 4:6)
It’s easy to say, “Don’t worry,” but what are we going to do about our problems if we don’t worry about them? The Apostle Paul doesn’t leave us in a vacuum when he prescribed: “Pray about everything!”
The Word of God exhorts us to pray when we are in crisis situations. Psalm 46:1 has an alternate reading in the New Standard version, “God is our refuge and strength, abundantly available for help in tight places.” God delivered Paul from many tight places. We should therefore always pray in a crisis: “When it’s hardest to pray, pray the hardest!”
However, from personal experience Paul knew that God doesn’t always take our problems away. He had a physical condition that he described as a “thorn in the flesh.” Three times he asked God to take it away. Paul saw many people miraculously healed as he ministered the healing power of the Holy Spirit to them. Yet, when he asked God to solve his own health problem, three times God said, “No. No. No.”
But God also responded, “My grace is sufficient for you and that is all you need. My strength looks good on weak people.” (2 Corinthians 12) His weakness drove Paul to discover God’s strength. When he did, he not only accepted his condition but eventually thanked God in it so the power of God might be showcased in him.
As Paul accepted the will of God regarding his thorn, he learned that the will of God will never lead us where the grace of God cannot keep us. Paul exhorts us from his personal experience that prayer may deliver us from our problems, or prayer may give us the grace to cope with them. But, in any case, pray.
Always pray about everything!
Dick Woodward, from “A Prescription for Peace”
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 21, 2025
“Give us this day our daily bread…” (Matthew 6:11)
Jesus is using the symbol of bread here to represent our needs. We are a veritable basket of needs: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. This first personal petition is not limited to our need for food, but all our needs.
Observe the concept ‘one day at a time’ is repeated twice in this petition of just seven words. Alcoholics with years of sobriety tell me that when they took their first step, they could not entertain the thought of being sober for more than one day. This prayer of Jesus prescribes that we pray ‘this day’ and ‘daily’ when we present our needs to our Heavenly Father. This principle of one day at a time is a proven therapy that has made the difference between life and death for some of my closest friends who now are celebrating many years of sobriety.
Observe how Jesus concludes His teaching about values with the same emphasis later in Matthew 6: “So don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time.” (Matthew 6:34)
We read in the book of Numbers that when God miraculously provided bread from Heaven in the wilderness, the Israelites were only permitted to collect enough manna for one day. That story, recorded in Numbers 11, is also applicable to the one-day-at-a-time principle that Jesus prescribes in the prayer He taught us to pray.
When we apply the story of that manna miracle to our daily devotions, we should make the application that we cannot hoard our experience of a word from God or the blessings of our time in the presence of God. Our souls and spirits need to be nourished with heavenly manna every day, one day at a time.
Dick Woodward, from A Prescription for Prayer
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 17, 2025
“… but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3: 13, 14)
As we move into this new year many of us can say, “These forty/eleven things I dabble in” as we consider our priorities. Spiritual heavyweights like Paul write “One thing I do.” They write that they have their priorities sifted down to one thing because they forget those things that are behind.
We all have things we need to let go of so we can press toward the goal of what God wants us to do now and in the future.
The story is told of a man who fell over a cliff but managed to grab hold of a little bush that was growing out of the cliff about forty feet from the top. He frantically shouted “Help!” several times but his voice simply echoed back to him. Desperately he yelled, “Anybody there? A subterranean voice answered, “Yes!” He then yelled again “Help!” Then the voice said. “Let go!” After a brief pause the man shouted, “Anybody else out there?”
Sometimes it takes a lot of faith to let go. It may be that we need to let go of things that we cannot do and only God can do. It might be that we need to let go of things we cannot control. And, sometimes we need to let go of hurts that people have inflicted on us and we cannot forgive them and just let it go.
Do you need to let go and let God so you can unload baggage and move forward with God?
Dick Woodward, 11 January 2013
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 14, 2025
“I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years.” (Isaiah 38:5)
Early in my ministry as a pastor I made a discovery about prayer. I came to the conclusion that we are praying even when we do not close our eyes, fold our hands, and bow our heads. I discovered that prayer is the sincere desire of our souls no matter how we express it.
The sigh of a believer can be a prayer. When we come to the end of our resources and throw ourselves across a bed and sigh, or cry – that is also a prayer.
God sent the Prophet Isaiah to tell a sick King Hezekiah that he was going to die. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and cried. When God saw the tears of King Hezekiah, God sent Isaiah back to him with the message: “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears.” And God added 15 years to King Hezekiah’s life.
When we express the sincere desires of our souls, which are often too deep for words, in tears and sighs of despair – that is prayer God hears and answers. God has as much interaction with people in the waiting rooms of hospitals as God has in the sanctuaries of our churches.
Realizing your tears and sighs of despair are prayers, will you offer them to God as the prayers of your heart?
God will hear you.
Dick Woodward, 18 January 2011
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 10, 2025
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12)
The greatest obstacle to inner healing is un-forgiveness. Those who work in ministries of healing claim that the lack of forgiveness on the part of victims who have been terribly hurt can retard their own inner healing.
Can you see why Jesus instructed His disciples to pray every day: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors?” The original language has it, “As we have already forgiven our debtors.” Do you think Jesus knows how important it is to our inner healing that we should forgive those who sin against us?
Some are bothered by the way Jesus offers commentary on this petition in the Disciple’s Prayer. He commented that if we do not forgive, we are not forgiven. It almost sounds as if we are forgiven because we forgive. He defuses their confusion with a parable that is recorded in Matthew 18. A man is forgiven a large debt in the millions of dollars. He does not have to go into debtor’s prison and see his wife and family sold into slavery.
But on the way home he meets a man who owes him twenty dollars. He grabs him by the throat and orders him to pay him every cent or he will have him put into debtor’s prison. Both events are observed and told to the one who forgave him the large debt. He is recalled and his forgiveness is revoked. Jesus comments on that story that if we from our hearts do not forgive, we are not forgiven.
The point is that if we are a forgiven person we will be a forgiving person. If we are not a forgiving person, we are not really a forgiven person.
Dick Woodward, 09 January 2013
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 7, 2025
“Only let us live up to the truth we now have.” (Philippians 3:16)
The Apostle Paul had a life changing experience on the road to Damascus. He shared the details of that experience in the third chapter of his letter to the Church at Philippi. It was as if his accounting books were turned upside down – what had been in the gain column was now in the loss column and vice versa.
After his books had been turned upside down (or we might say right side up) Paul’s ambitions totally changed in the gain column. He wanted to tackle the purposes for which the risen Christ had tackled him. Now he only wanted to know Jesus Christ and the high calling of God to which Christ was leading him.
Paul claims that he has not attained these things in his new gain column, but he has learned a principle about knowing the will of God: if we want to know the will of God we must live up to the Light and truth God has given us at any given time on our faith journey.
From Paul’s experience we can take away a prescription for guidance. If we want to see further ahead into the will of God for our lives, then we should move ahead into the will of God just as far as we can see.
Like driving across country at night when we move ahead into the 100 yards of light our headlights give us – that light can lead us clear across the country.
When we live up to the Light we have, God gives us more Light.
Dick Woodward, 08 January 2011
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Posted by Dick Woodward
January 3, 2025
“… as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17)
This year has come and gone. Economy prophets are now referring to our lingering economic downturn as “A Great Recession.” What security do we have as we begin the New Year?
“…as He is, so are we in this world.” In nine words John, the aged Apostle of Love, gives us a marvelous perspective on our security. There are several ways we can interpret and apply these words. We can say it is only because Jesus is that we can be as we should be in this world. We can say that our security rests in the proposition that He is and He will equip us to be what He wants us to be in this world.
We can also say these words mean Jesus lives in us and through us. For 33 years He had a physical body of His own. For 2000 years now His followers have been the only body Jesus has. This presents the challenge that the only Christ people in this world know is the Christ they see revealed in and through you and me.
As you meditate on the portraits of Jesus Christ the New Testament presents by those who knew Him, realize these portraits are precisely the way He wants to be revealed to this world through your life and mine today. The overwhelming personality trait of Jesus Christ is love.
Love is as He was and as He is today. Our purpose is not to be secure in this world but to let the love of Jesus pass to others through our lives.
Dick Woodward, 27 December 2011
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Posted by Dick Woodward
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