Radio Reminder (October 6, 1982)

On October 6, 1982, Bible teacher Derek Prince used his daily radio broadcast to steady believers with a simple, bracing line: “God accepts responsibility for the maintenance of his appointed temple—our body.” In an era when many Christians carried hidden burdens—family pressures, financial strain, chronic illness, and discouragement—Prince’s message met listeners in kitchens, cars, hospital rooms, and workplaces, far beyond any single local congregation.

Prince was known for clear, Scripture-shaped instruction aimed at everyday obedience. Through radio’s wide reach, he pressed home a pastoral truth: the Christian life is not sustained by nervous self-management, but by trust in the Lord who indwells His people.

The Temple He Maintains

Prince’s statement drew strength from the Bible’s teaching that the believer belongs to God in body as well as spirit. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you…? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). The body is not disposable, nor ultimate; it is appointed for worshipful stewardship.

That stewardship includes discipline—honest work, moral purity, wise habits—and also humble dependence. The call to “honor God” is not a command to panic, but an invitation to entrust even frailty to the One who purchased us.

Courage in Weakness and Daily Demands

Prince encouraged a faith that prays, obeys, and rests. For weary saints, this was a quiet kind of heroism: getting up to serve again, resisting despair, forgiving, enduring treatments, bearing pain without bitterness, and refusing to let suffering rewrite God’s goodness.

Scripture does not deny weakness; it redeems it. “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). The believer’s confidence is not in unbroken health, but in sustaining grace.

Legacy of Hopeful Confidence

The broadcast’s enduring note is hope: God does not merely command holiness; He supplies what He requires. When believers care for their bodies with reverence, seek prayer without superstition, and live within their limits without shame, they testify that the Lord is faithful—today, in hardship, and to the end.