Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Ezra, chapter 1, verse 1.

In the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia,

that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled,

the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia,

so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also

put it in writing. I want to stop here at the end of this verse. We're not going to dive into

what Cyrus King of Persia proclaimed. I just want to stop here and think about the wonder of this verse, especially on the first day of a new year.

And to read Ezra chapter 1, verse 1. And we prayed according to similar language at the end

of 2nd Chronicles, 2 Chronicles chapter 36. But here are the people

of God in exile. And Ezra chapter 1, verse 1 from the very beginning of this chapter,

we see a picture of the sovereignty of God over all history and over all nations and over all kings.

When we read in the Bible about the king's heart being in the hand of the Lord,

here's an illustration of that.

Cyrus King of Persia makes a decree. And what happens after this? Cyrus, King of Persia, makes a decree.

And what happens after this, Cyrus, King of Persia, is making a decree that the people of God can return to Jerusalem and build the temple there. And it's all because the Lord stirred up his spirit according to the word God had spoken through

Jeremiah. So did you hear that? Like what we take away from Ezra chapter 1 is one that the

word of the Lord is sure, is a rock, that God will do what He says in His Word.

Guaranteed, you can bank your life on the Word of God and the sovereign operation of God's spirit in the world.

History is not random that world events and world leaders are ultimately under the rule

of God's sovereignty, And he is guiding all things in history

toward a definite end, a definite aim, a definite goal. Obviously, we read in the rest of

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