Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please go this video link to again hear a version of Steven Curtis Chapman singing his classic, His Strength Is Perfect, reminding us of the truth of our TOTAL dependence on God’s strength to cover our weaknesses in this life.
Highlight Passage - 2nd Corinthians 12: 9 [NKJV] …
9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
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Highlight Passage [Context] - 2nd Corinthians 12: 7-12 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK ...
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Reference Passage #1 - The entire Journal of Job in the Old Testament, which you’ve very likely read in the past … but GO TO THIS LINK for the final chapter … to see how a merciful and just God restored the beleaguered, but repentant, believer.
Reference Passage #2 … Romans 8: 28 …
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Reference Passage #3 … 2nd Corinthians 5: 17 …
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
My Journal for Today: In this morning’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, the author, Julie Ackerman Link, uses one of my favorite stories in the New Testament, the incident of Paul being socked with a mysterious “thorn,” to illustrate her lesson that often God uses very devastating, and often very painful, circumstance or maladies to bring us to a surrendered and seeking state of mind, which then often leads to a repentant and receptive spirit, which in turn leads us to surrender and seek God’s guidance and onward to HIS victory.
Ms. Links also used a more current story of the time when the boll weevil descended on the cotton crops in Enterprise Alabama, which led them to diversify and rotate their crops, saving the region’s farmers and their economy. In the attached photo, you can see the monument Enterprise erected in thanks that God sent the boll weevil to lead them to change their way of farming. This story, plus the story of the Apostle Paul’s “thorn,” as well as the entire book of Job, show us that God sometimes either allows or engineers calamity to cause us to go in surrender mode in our life to His merciful and willingness to save, renew, and restore our lives.
Perhaps you’ve had a boll weevil or a “thorn” … or a maybe some devastating, chronic, or painful malady in life, which has caused us to recognize how dependent we are on God. I sure have; and I’m so grateful that God led me through my “boll weevil” times; and, now believing in the truth of Romans 8: 28, I am a monument to his restoring and renewing Spirit (really a poster boy for 2nd Cor. 5: 17 - see copied above).
How about you? Can you see that our “boll weevils” are God’s way of getting us to look to surrender ourselves to Him.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, I am here where I am today because of Your mercy in sending the times of the “thorn,” to save me from myself. Amen
Blogger Note: Every day 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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