Devotional Song: Go to this link - Please take in this poignant and powerful song, sung by Phillips, Craig and Dean , … singing He’ll Do Whatever It Takes, reminding Christians that God often allows great challenge in our life to develop our strength and Christlikeness.
Highlight meditation passage – Exodus 14: 5-6 [NLT]: …
5 When word reached the king of Egypt that the Israelites had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds. “What have we done, letting all those Israelite slaves get away?” they asked. 6 So Pharaoh harnessed his chariot and called up his troops.
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Highlight reading study of Exodus, Chapters 14`: Go to this link …
Reference Passage #1: Romans 8: 28 [Challenges come into our lives to develop our wings so that we can fly alone in this world.] … [NLT] …
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together[a] for the good of those who love God and are the called according to His purpose for them.
Reference Passage #2: Luke 24: 13-34 [Jesus carefully using the “Butterfly Principle” to let the wings of two disciples grow in strength after they experienced the cross.] … [NLT] …Go to this link ...
My Journal for Today: Today Os Hillman, in his devotional blog, which I’m using this year to guide me in my daily quiet times with God, uses “the butterfly principle” to illustrate the challenges God often puts His children through to develop their wings to fly independently in this very cruel world. And to highlight this principle, he used the story of what God put His freed people through before He set them free by taking them through the Red Sea. In Exodus, Chapter 14, linked above, we read about Pharaoh backing the Israelites up against the sea, challenging the faith of the people and developing that faith, before He set them free and allowed them to walk on their own through the parted waters.
It’s like the principle God uses to develop the wings of a butterfly in a chrysalis before it’s transformed and is able to fly free on its own. We know that if God doesn’t put the butterfly through its chrysalis, it will never have wings strong enough to fly independently. And to illustrate this, I think of one New Testament story where Jesus used that principle to allow the wings of two disciples to grow strong enough to fly on their own. It’s the story to which I’ve linked any followers here with me today in Luke 24: 13-34, the story of the men walking to Emmaus just after they had witnessed the crucifixion in Jerusalem.
Jesus encountered the men in a post-resurrection form that the men on the road to Emmaus could not recognize the Lord. And then Jesus carefully allowed them to experience and deal with their grief and agony, sensitively allowing their wings to strengthen before He revealed Himself to them when they were ready to walk on their own as His disciples.
And that’s the butterfly principle which God almost always uses with His followers, doesn’t He? And I’ll bet, right now, you’re remembering some incident or occurrence in your life where God allowed you to go through a Romans 8: 28 episode to strengthen your wings so that you could be able to fly more freely on your own in this tough world. And wouldn’t you agree, that it’s always the toughest times which grow us the strongest and help us to develop our wings of Christlikeness the best?
So, if right now your recalling one of those wing-testing times; or maybe you’re going through one of those times right now, just know that, as today’s devotional song, linked above, presents for us, God will “do whatever it takes” to help us grow and develop our wings to be able to fly free in the world.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, thank You for Your patience, mercy, and grace in doing what it takes to allow my wings to grow strong enough to fly free in my world. … Amen
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