Four-Letter Words
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president
What do you think about when you hear the phrase “four-letter words”?
Usually when people think of four-letter words, their mind may wander towards four-letter words that frankly shouldn’t be in our vocabulary. Yet there are so many four-letter words in the dictionary.
Did you know that the word “have” is the most commonly used four-letter word in daily conversation? Interesting. Try an internet search for four-letter words and you will find all sorts of interesting lists. One list had many words that I had never heard before. Words like cuil, gorp, slue, culb, esox, and pook. I was starting to wonder if maybe I needed to go back to school and those vocabulary drills we had in academy.
Another interesting list of four-letter words featured all 1,170 positive four-letter words.
It was really interesting reading the list. Their top positive four-letter words included love, hope, free, gift, best, calm, true, cool, save, and play. All great words that bring about good feelings.
1 John 4:10-11 features one of those words and points to another.
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
God loves us. God gave us the free gift of Himself so that we can have eternal life. Our response to this is love. Love of God and love of our fellow human beings all around us. Praise God for the simplicity of those four-letter words.
Another four-letter word featured on the list was pray.
Each of us has this most powerful positive opportunity to walk daily with this God of love through prayer. The early church quickly learned the power of prayer in facing the challenges of life.
They learned the power of prayer in bringing about unity in the church. They learned the power of prayer in outreach efforts and leading others to Jesus. They learned the power of that simple word—pray—in every aspect of life. Pentecost was all about praying together, praying individually, and then letting the Holy Spirit dwell in and guide the church forward.
This week, Washington Conference is leading the North Pacific Union in praying for Pentecost 2025. Praying for our families in their family worship. Praying for our teachers, students, and parents in our schools and homes to be places where prayer is a highlight of the day.
Please join us at 6 AM and 6 PM as we pray for the Holy Spirit to fall on us all.