file: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db940304.txt
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          OUR DAILY BREAD                          Friday, March 4, 1994
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          Read:  Exodus 17:8-16

                                  INVISIBLE SUPPORT

                       So it was, when Moses held up his hand,
                               that Israel prevailed.
                                   --Exodus 17:11

          Prison  guards couldn't understand how Irina Ratushinskaya  could
          be  so joyful.  She was cold, sick, and hungry in a cruel  Soviet
          prison  camp.  But  Irina says she understands how:  People  were
          praying for her.

          Irina is convinced that she and other prisoners experienced God's
          presence like "the sense of delicious warmth in a freezing  land"
          because  Christians all around the world were asking God to  help
          them.  After she was set free, Irina wrote a poem to express  her
          gratitude  to God and fellow believers.  She included the  words,
          "My dear ones, thank you all."

          In our Scripture lesson we see that the Israelites prevailed over
          the  superior Amalekite army when Moses lifted his  staff  toward
          heaven  -- a symbol of intercessory prayer.  His praying  on  the
          hill, possibly unseen by the Israelites, gave them the  invisible
          support they needed.

          Sick,  suffering,  sorrowing  people  cannot  see  their   fellow
          believers who are praying for them.  But many people have told me
          they  are  amazed  at  the  sense  of  God's  presence  in  their
          affliction, and they know this to be the result of the prayers of
          their friends.

          May we faithfully intercede for those who are  struggling.  Let's
          be a source of invisible support.

          Author:  Herbert Vander Lugt

                          Support for people who're in need
                          Comes when we pray and intercede;
                         God's strength is given to His own
                         When we go to the Father's throne.
                                       --Sper

          THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
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          God's intervention is often the result of our intercession.

          THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:   Deuteronomy 13-16
          
          

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