Elkanah had two wives, one named Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah remained barren. Peninnah used this opportunity of Hannah’s barren state to provoke her, hoping that she could trouble her rival. The Christian’s primary adversary is much different from Peninnah, but Satan’s goal and resolve is identical to this example. The adversary, the Devil (1 Peter 5:8), wants believers to live troubled, fretful, and defeated lives. If he can cause a believer to fret and to worry and to complain, he has a much greater chance of turning that believer’s heart against the Lord (Proverbs 19:3). The Devil knows that if he turns the heart, he might be able to cause that believer to curse the Lord (Isaiah 8:21). Satan uses worry as one of the foundational elements in his multipronged attack to bring about his greater objective. He wants to turn hearts against God! Those believers who struggle most with worry offer Satan the greatest chance of success
Prayer serves as the greatest remedy for worry and fears. In Philippians 4:6, God’s word tells us to “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” This truth is reaffirmed in 1 Peter 5:7 where the Bible says, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” A man can expend time and strength caring for the things of this world including the necessities of life, or he can make a conscious decision to obediently cast those same cares upon the Lord. This allows the Lord to show Himself strong toward the individual by caring for His child. According to Philippians 4:7, by choosing to pray, the cares and worries of man are replaced with “the peace of God.” The Bible describes this peace as one that keeps the believer’s heart and mind through Christ Jesus and even passes one’s ability to comprehend its depths and riches.
This world, though it consistently fails to recognize and know the Lord, should consistently recognize Christ's conversation through the life of the believer. Our conversation should always match, or become, the gospel of Christ and the new life that we have in Him. Our conversation should be holy because the Lord is holy (1 Peter 1:15). In 2 Peter 3:11, we learn that the dissolving of this world ought to cause us to walk “in all holy conversation and godliness.” In other words, our practical Christian life should resemble the change inside of us that took place at salvation. Others should see the Lord Jesus Christ in our actions and in our way of life.
The Bible teaches us that “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Following salvation, a man's life should display visible changes as he seeks to put off his former conversation. According to scripture, that former conversation fulfilled “the desires of the flesh and of the mind” (Ephesians 2:3). By the grace of God, change is possible because every believer has been redeemed from his “vain conversation” (1 Peter 1:18). The apostle Paul is a great example. Before meeting the Lord on the road to Damascus, Paul's conversation or lifestyle involved mercilessly persecuting the church (Galatians 1:13). In his new life with Christ, he immediately began preaching the very faith he once destroyed (Galatians 1:23). When a person truly places his faith for salvation in the finished work of Christ, his conversation will change accordingly.
Modern usage of the word conversation generally limits the definition to two people involved in a dialog. However, the Bible frequently uses the word conversation in a different sense. In fact, our passage reveals that a conversation can occur without words. Several other verses confirm connecting works to a man’s conversation (James 3:13; 1 Peter 2:12). The Bible’s use of conversation can involve something that others can observe (1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 3:2) and consider (Hebrews 13:7). Obviously, a man’s conversation is more complex than a simple discussion held between two or more persons. Scripturally speaking, our conversation reveals how we live our lives in front of others. Though this world would apply conversation only to what we say, God never intended for its usage to be limited to that single aspect.
