Devotional Song: Go to this link – Please take your time to see a video of the powerful song, performed by Sara Groves singing Open My Hands, a song which reminds believers that when we are given much we need to open our hands to help others.
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Highlight Passage #1a - NLT: 2nd Samuel 7: 8-9
8 “Now go and say to my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has declared: I took you from tending sheep in the pasture and selected you to be the leader of my people Israel. 9 I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before your eyes. Now I will make your name as famous as anyone who has ever lived on the earth! … ‘
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Highlight Context - NLT: 2nd Samuel, Chapter 7… GO TO THIS LINK …
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Reference Passage #1: Philippians 2: 5-11 … [NLT] … GO TO THIS LINK …
My Journal for Today: What’s the riskiest place to be in life? Well, I think the attached photo says it all in answering that dilemma. … We probably incur the most danger in life when we reach the top. So, when life fills our hands with self-proclaimed success, let it be a warning – DANGER, DANGER, DANGER!!! – to open our hands, as Sara Groves sings so poignantly in the linked song for today.
When we get to the top or have great success in some area of life, our human default is to try to hold on tightly to what God has allowed us to have; but as the Apostle Paul exhorted in the passage I think best describes what our attitude at Christmas should be (and throughout life as well), … that is to become like Jesus [see Phil. 2: 5]. And what was our Lord’s primary strategy during his life on earth; and if you’ve taken in Philippians 2: 6-11, you know that our Lord was the model of humility and service to others. Having all – and I mean ALL – He didn’t hold onto it in glory. No, He let it all go to become a man and die that we might live.
So, this Christmas, when much is being lavished on us, … when we become prodigals for a day – let us remember that God is calling us to be willing to resist holding on too tightly to what He has given us. That’s what God communicated through the Prophet Nathan to David late in King David’s life (see the highlight passages above). God had allowed David to get to the top, coming from being a lowly shepherd boy; and David learned that with what he’d been given, it would become David’s lot in life to bring the Ark of the Covenant back into the Temple of the Lord and to begin building a kingdom for God. And for this task, God promised David that his legacy would be a forever Kingdom with his seed being The Messiah.
So, yes, we should strive to do all God calls to do; but in the process, we should be willing to let it go to honor the Lord just as God’s Son honored His Father by giving all for us.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, help me to hold on to nothing you give me so tightly that I’m not willing to give it up to glorify You,. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online blog entitled Today God Is First [TGIF], authored by Os Hillman. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you’ll find a link to read Hillman’s TGIF blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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