“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”

~ Col 4:2~

A few weeks ago we went on a tour of a John Deere Factory with Kristi’s brother, who works for John Deere.   This particular factory has received an award for the most hours of an accident free, safe environment.  They celebrated achieving over 10 million hours without a lost time injury!    As we observed a large bulletin board with pictures of people doing various stretching exercises, the man giving us the tour told us that  all workers are required to participate in 7-10 minutes of warm ups every morning before their shift.  The claim is that these stretching exercises have brought a significant reduction in injuries.

What a great lesson for the follower of Christ.   I’m inspired by the commitment of these workers to stretch their muscles prior to a day’s work.   I’m even more inspired toward the discipline of stretching my spiritual muscles through Bible reading and prayer before engaging in a day’s work.   It might prevent injuries, and it is profitable for building muscles of faith.

“I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.”

~1 Tim 2:8~

I prayed for faith and thought that some day faith would come down and strike me like lightning.  But faith did not seem to come.  One day I read in the 10^th chapter of Romans, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  I had up to this time closed my Bible and prayed for faith.  I now opened my Bible and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since.

~Dwight L. Moody