Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please go to this video link to hear Chris Rice singing a classic hymn Come Thy Fount Of Every Blessing, … reminding us that God’s power is always there for those who are powerless. The challenge is accessing it when we need it.
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Highlight Passage – NKJV: Psalm 119: 9-11 – Emphasis on vs 10. [NKJV] …
9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. 10 With my whole heart I have sought You. Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! 11 Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.
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Highlight Passage [Context] – NKJV: Psalms 119: 9-16 [NKJV] Go to this link …
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Reference Passage #1: Isaiah 53: 6 [NKJV] …
6 All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Reference Passage #2: Joshua 1: 8 [NKJV] …
8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Reference Passage #3: 2nd Corinthians 5: 17 [NKJV] …
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come.
My Journal for Today: I don’t know about you, fellow Christian (I pray so!); but the attached photo today is me. I’m one of those very grateful Isaiah 53: 6 Christians with a human default mechanism that draws me toward laziness, procrastination, selfishness, and a wandering eye (or spirit). Yes, … I’m one who’d be very happy sitting in my lounge chair and watching sports on TV all day long. That’s the “natural” me.
But, “PTL!” … that’s not “the me” I’m becoming !!! No, on April 13th, 1983, I began becoming a new me, being saved on that day and now slowly being transformed into a poster boy for 2nd Cor. 5: 17 [see above]. Yes, my human default is as I indicated above; but I think others, who know me well, would tell you that now I choose to be something – or someone – different than my natural proclivities would dictate in my life. For example, each and every morning I get up and I choose to spend time, the first part of EVERY day, in God’s word; and I’m moving now habitually to this discipline for the same reason the author of Psalm 119 (some say it was King David in Psalms 119: 10) wrote about his love affair with Scripture. I desire the promises given by God to the author of Psalm 119 and also to Joshua in the first chapter of that warrior’s Scriptural account (see Joshua 1: 8 above). And I know that the only way I’ll be spiritually led to God’s success in my Christian life is to be in God’s word and allow God’s word to saturate my mind and heart.
By nature I’m one of those wandering sheep in Isaiah 53: 6 and praise God that God laid upon Jesus, as our Messiah, the ability to reshape the natural iniquity from all who believe in Christ and yield to Him as the Lord of our lives. Yes, as the old hymn linked above sings, I am “prone to wander” from the Lord I love; but praise God He gives me the sanctifying grace to use His resurrection power to overcome my natural weaknesses. And I can choose to stay on the path my Lord so graciously lights for me from His word (see Psalms 119: 105).
My Prayer for Today … Lord, as I pray almost every day, “Shine Your light so brightly on my path from Your word that I can easily see Your way and Your will for my life.” … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread [TGIF], distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you’ll find a link to read the Our Daily Bread blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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