Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of Sara Groves singing It’s Going To Be Alright … declaring a positive way of thinking … that can only be truth when we have a deep/abiding relationship with Christ …
Highlight Passage Deuteronomy 8: 18-19 [NKJV] …
18 “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.
… We will perish if we try to go it on our own, ignoring God’s covenant …
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Highlight Context - Deuteronomy 8: 11-20 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s covenant is forever
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Reference Passage #1 - Proverbs 3: 5-6 [NKJV] …
5 Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not on your own understanding. 6 In ALL your ways follow Him and He will direct your paths.
… It’s the “ALL” part which is hard.
Reference Passage #2 - Matthew 11: 28-30 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK
… Leaning on Jesus in the currents of life helps us to swim upstream
Reference Passage #3 - Romans 12: 1-2 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK
… Paul exhorts Christians to become God’s living sacrifice, faithfully following Christ, especially when the tides of life go against us
Reference Passage #3 - 2nd Corinthians 12: 9-10 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK
… We can deal with the riptides of life if we humble ourselves to receive God’s power through His grace
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Julie Ackerman Link, illustrating her devotional, related a story which took me back to a few years when my wife and I lived in Hawaii.
Occasionally, when we were there, we’d see a newspaper account of some “haule” (i.e., a person from the mainland) being swept to their death in a dangerous rip-tide on one of the lovely public beaches on Oahu. Several tourists would underestimate the power of the currents on these beaches and die in the undercurrents which would carry them out to sea and they would not have the strength to fight against the rip tide, drowning in their ignorance of the currents. We were warned by the locals to avoid any public beach where there were no locals swimming there (like the one in the attached photo). That usually meant that there were riptides which should be avoided. If a tourist, not knowing the danger of the rip tides, were to be ignorant of these beaches, even good swimmers could - and often did - perish.
ODB Author, Link, used this story to illustrate how we can easily get pulled under in life, as Christians, by trying to swim in the currents of life on our own and not relying on the enabling, empowering grace of God to help us. By taking in the attached photo and God’s word (see above) today, I was reminded to beware of trying to fight the tides of life on my own and to rely more often and more readily on God’s grace.
My Prayer Today: Oh Lord, … We need Your strength and discernment, precious Holy Spirit, to see where the rip tides are and how we can use Your strength to overcome our weakness. Yes, Lord, as Sara Groves is right when she sings It’s Going to be Alright … but only if/when we rely on You to help us swim through 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, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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