“Then he prayed, ‘O Lord, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.'” – Genesis 24:12

In 1956, Ken Taylor, a graduate of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, was the director of Moody Press. During this time, his children were having a difficult time in reading their King James Bible. Starting with the book of Romans, Taylor began paraphrasing the New Testament Epistles on the train while commuting to work. The project took seven years to complete. Unable to interest publishers in his Living Letters, Ken took out a loan for $2,000 and had his paraphrase printed by his own private company in 1963. His family began to pray constantly that the Lord would cause the paraphrase to succeed and that it would bless many. For the first few years, few copies were ordered. But then Billy Graham, while laid up in a hospital read the book. After his recovery, Dr. Graham began recommending Living Letters from the pulpit. The small publishing company Ken had founded to print his paraphrase became Tyndale House Publishers. And the Living Letters Epistles grew into the popular Living Bible, with over 40 million copies sold and a blessing to millions of children and new believers.

Are you praying that the Lord would use you in a large way? Today in prayer, pray that you may be successful in using your talents to bring glory to the Lord.

“I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything but it came at some time-no matter at how distant a day, somehow, in some shape, probably the last I would have devised, it came.” -Adoniram Judson.

God’s Word: “Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.’ And God granted his request.” – 1 Chronicles 4:10

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2003, Devotional E-Mail DEVOTIONS IN GENESIS pkennedy@devotional.com