Daily Devotional for Saturday October 18, 2025

US Government shutdown Day 18! and, Forgiving others!

DAILY DEVOTIONAL SATURDAY OCTOBER 18, 2025

(Mark 11:25; Colossians 3:13)

***Personal Message For You From Bill Keller***

God has a wonderful plan and purpose for your life! Wake up each morning and be excited about what God has planned for you that day!

***Daily Personal Prayer For You***

Dear Lord, I cry out to You today. I have no place to turn but to You. My life is Yours. Do with it as You will and I will obediently serve You with my very last breath. IN the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..AMEN!

***The Daily Liveprayer TV Nugget***

Day 18 of the Government shutdown, have you even noticed? Unless you are directly connected with the government my guess is you haven’t. This shutdown looks like it is not ending anytime soon. The issues are no complicated. The Republicans needed about 8 weeks to finalize their 12 separate budget requests for fiscal year 2026. So they put forth a clean Continuing Resolution for 8 weeks. It is called “clean” because there are no poison pills or anything attached to the CR. It simply continues to fund the government under the Biden era budget. Often political parties will use such occasions to add some pet projects, but the Republicans did not do that. The House passed the clean CR along party lines and sent it to the Senate. The House only needed a simple majority which they have, however in the Senate it needs 60 votes to pass and the Republicans only have 53 seats meaning they need 7 Democrat Senators to join them.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to hold the CR hostage in order to add $1.5 trillion in spending to the CR. Half a trillion was to reinstate funds for public broadcasting stripped in the Big Beautiful Bill, the other trillion dollars was to pay for Obamacare subsidies including billions that would fund healthcare for illegals. As I have helped educate the Liveprayer audience over the years Obama wanted to destroy the private health insurance market and replace it with government healthcare, socialized medicine like in Canada and Europe. He understood that was not possible so there had to be an intermediate step towards government healthcare and that was Obamacare. Obamacare was never created to last long, but to destroy the private healthcare industry which they have been very successful in doing.

The Obamacare premiums are set to cost much more at the end of the year. The Democrats tried to use the CR as a vehicle to address those premium increases. The Republicans have held firm that there can be a debate on healthcare AFTER the clean CR is passed since they still have over 2 months to work out a solution. Schumer and the Democrats have held firm that they will not support the clean CR unless their healthcare issues are part of that package. The fact is the Democrats are in a very weak position and in the process of shutting the government down, it has given the White House special powers while the shutdown exists to cut Federal workers and the Federal budget which has long been a goal of the Trump Administration.

Day 18 will ultimately become Day 30 before I expect to see any movement. In the meantime the country is running just fine!

*Liveprayer TV is back on YouTube! The Liveprayer TV channel was on YouTube for 15 yrs until they banned us 5 yrs ago. The Liveprayer TV Show channel has been reinstated! We will be airing LIVE each night starting Monday 10/6 with all previous programs available for On Demand viewing. As of last Friday 9/26, we are posting each night’s program 10 minutes after it is over. Here is the direct link to the “Liveprayer Show” YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_BYkxZ95HKePlWilY5eVdQ

*Liveprayer TV Program airs “LIVE” every Monday thru Friday from 11pm EDT to Midnight! For details on viewing options for the Liveprayer TV program, “LIVE” or “On Demand,” go to: https://liveprayer.com/liveprayer-show-about.cfm

*The audio of the TV program is now available on major Podcasting platforms: APPLE/I-TUNES: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/liveprayer-with-bill-keller/id1696186297 SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/75xloMRrL3azW89aKpR3h0

*REVIVAL TOOL: Do your part in helping to bring revival to our nation each day in less than 15 minutes and without costing you one penny! Visit the Liveprayer Revival Tool and share it with others at: www.liveprayer.com/revival.cfm The database that gives you the past 30 days of the Revival Tool verse for the day, daily task, and prayer is at: https://liveprayer.com/bill/revivalcheck.cfm

***October Financial Update***

I need your help today. We ended September still requiring the final $30,000 from our August shortfall and the $55,000 we required for our September ministry operations or $85,000. So far $10,000 of that has come in during the first days of October bringing our shortfall down to $75,000. I am praying that we can clear up this shortfall in the coming week. Please pray about what the Lord is speaking to your heart about giving to help me to insure this shortfall is taken care of so we can work on the $55,000 we require for our October ministry operations. OUR GOD IS ABLE!

The Bible teaches us to “give according to our ability to give.” For some that may be $10 or $20. For others it may be $50 or $100. Still others it may be $200, $500, $1,000, $10,000 or more. God will bless your gift no matter the amount.

Also, don’t forget a gift of $1,800 covers one day of ministry at Liveprayer. I received this email recently, “Pastor Bill, My wife and I have just sold our last rental and God told us to tithe $1,800.00 to pay for a day of your ministry. Not looking for accolades, just that you know when you receive the check. Rest assured that we will still be making our regular weekly tithes."

To give a gift to Liveprayer you can use your major credit card at: http://liveprayer.com/donate.cfm or you can mail your gift to: Liveprayer, 6662 46th Ave. North, St. Petersburg, FL 33709. All gifts to Liveprayer are 100% tax deductible!

Stocks! A great way to help Liveprayer is by donating stock. The transfer can be made in a way you get the full credit for your donation without having to pay any of the taxes you normally would on gains your stocks may have enjoyed. Contact me for information about this incredible way to help God's work here at Liveprayer: bkeller@liveprayer.com

Live on after you are in Heaven!!! By remembering God's work here at Liveprayer in your will/estate planning, you can still help me share His Truth with the masses, be here for people in their time of greatest need, and help lead the lost to faith in Jesus even after God has called you home!!! God has led many of our friends in the Liveprayer family to remember His work here in their will. Please pray about this opportunity to continue and partner with me in the Lord's work at Liveprayer, even after you are enjoying your rewards and the eternal peace of Heaven! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me at: bkeller@liveprayer.com

“Would you publicly forgive someone who killed your family member?” This is the Liveprayer poll question of the week several months ago. I don’t think I have ever had a poll question that generated this many emails. They are all on the same track. People know what they should do, but they don’t know if this happened to them it is what they would do!!!

I remember years ago when the insane young man who showed up at a Bible study at Mother Emanual AME church in Charleston, SC and then pulled out a gun and killed 9 people. In the aftermath family members of the dead publicly forgave thee killer. In just the last month we saw the widow of Charlie Kirk at his memorial service do the same thing, forgiving the evil young man who assassinated Kirk. These were two very public acts of Christian love.

Until we are confronted with certain situations we really don’t know how we would respond. However, it is spiritually healthy to consider these circumstances and use it as a teachable moment and show us an area of our spiritual life we might need to work on. There is nothing to be ashamed of, since each one who has given their life to Jesus, is working each day to become more like Him!

Not one person reading this Devotional today, has not had someone at some point in your life hurt you. Some of you may have been physically or sexually abused as a child by a mother, a father, a relative, or someone your family knew. Some of you may have had a wonderful childhood, but in your young adult life been hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend. Some of you may have been the victim of a horrible crime like robbery or rape.

Still others may have been deeply hurt by your husband or wife that wanted a divorce. There are many of you that have been hurt later in life by your children. Lots of people reading this have been hurt by employers, business associates, or close friends. Sadly, some of you have even been hurt by a pastor or someone in your church. The fact is, EVERYONE reading this today has been hurt at some point in your life.

As painful as the experience was that caused this hurt in your life, so many people have compounded that pain by letting bitterness, even hatred into their life against the person or people who caused your pain. Today, I am going to help set you free from this hurt and pain you have experienced in your life!!!

In a prison, they have a central lock that can automatically open all of the cell doors in a given area. If you have ever been in prison or watched a prison movie you know what I am talking about. There is the loud buzz, followed by the clanking sound of all of the cell doors automatically opening. Today, many of you are in prison from the hurts and pains in your life. Today, the cell door is going to open and you are going to be FREE!!!

The key to unlocking that door is FORGIVENESS. As simple as this may seem, it can be one of the most difficult things in this world to do. Forgiving someone who has hurt us deeply is one of the hardest things to do in life. It is not something that we can even do in our own strength, but must be done in the strength we get from the Lord.

I realize that many people right now are saying, "NO WAY, not after what that person did to me." As a Christian, it should be our goal to be like our Lord every day. What were some of the last words Christ spoke from the cross? What was his last act before dying that horrific death? He asked God to forgive those who had crucified Him!

When we sin, and we all sin every day, what do we do? We go to God and ask Him to forgive us. We do so with the full assurance that He will forgive us because He has promised to in His Word. In Colossians 3:13 the Bible tells us to "forgive as the Lord forgave you."

God's Word is clear that just as Christ forgives us when we sin against Him, we must forgive those who sin against us! That is the key to unlocking the prison door and being free once and for all from the hurt and pain you have experienced in your life. FORGIVE the person or people who have hurt you in your life!

The other problem I deal with each day is people not being able to forgive themselves. Listen, the Bible tells us that we have "all come short of the glory of God." We are all sinners. We all make mistakes. When you go to God and confess your sins, the Bible promises us that He not only forgives us but cleanses us from all unrighteousness. He not only has forgiven us, but He has forgotten the transgression. God acts like it never happened. The point I'm trying to make is that if God has forgiven you, if God has wiped the slate clean, if in God's mind the sin never existed...then you need to forgive yourself.

I love you and care about you so much. I realize that this is a difficult word for many of you to hear today, but this is going to literally change the lives of those who will receive it...and do it! I want you to take a moment right now, stop what you are doing, and take out a piece of paper and a pen. Literally write down the name of the person or names of the people in your life who have hurt you deeply.

Now, pray this prayer, "Dear Father, I come to you today, thanking you that you love me so much. I thank you that you are not only a God of love, but a God of forgiveness. Thank you for forgiving me of my sins. Father, I come today and pray that you will give me YOUR strength to forgive those who have hurt me in my life. Right now, this moment, I forgive (name/names). I not only forgive them, but Father, I ask that you bless them. They need you in their life and I pray that they will come to have a personal, intimate relationship with your Son. Thank you for giving me the strength to forgive and thank you for setting me free from the pain in my life. In Jesus precious name I pray, AMEN!"

I will be praying for each of you today to pray this prayer. It is time to forgive those who have hurt you, and it is time to forgive yourself if need be. Put the hurt and pain of your past behind you once and for all and move forward with your life. God still has much left for you to do and by forgiving those who have hurt you, you are now free to do all that He wants to do in and through your life for His Kingdom!!!

In His love and service,

Your friend and co-laborer in His work,

Bill Keller