Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please once again take the time to take in a video of Queen Latifah singing a song from the movie “A Joyful Noise.” The song is Fix Me Jesus proclaiming the need of all of us to have God examine our souls and restore us into His image.
Highlight Passage Psalm 139: 23-24 [NKJV] …
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties; 24 and see if there is any wicked way in me, … and lead me in THE WAY everlasting.
… Being open to God's "check-up" allows Him to "fix us" for His glory.
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Highlight Context - Psalm 139: 17-24 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s desire that we be open to His life-changing, life-healing grace
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Reference Passage #1 - 2nd Corinthians 13: 5 [NKJV] …
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
… God, thru Paul, exhorts us all to be examined in the faith to see if we’re qualified for His grace.
Reference Passage #2 - 1st John 1: 9 [NKJV] …
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.
… Really everyday - yea, every moment - should be a check-up to have God cleanse us from our sins.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Joe Stowell, used the analogy of getting an annual physical to illustrate his point of needing to be open to have God examine our hearts - regularly - to see if we need some treatment from God’s Spirit in His ministry to have us restored into the image of Christ.
Stowell writes: It’s that time of year when I go to the doctor for my annual physical. Even though I feel well and I’m not experiencing any health problems, I know that routine checkups are important because they can uncover hidden problems that if left undiscovered can grow to be serious health issues. I know that giving permission to my doctor to find and remedy the hidden problems can lead to long-term health.
And God’s word also encourages us to be open to have regular checkups of our spiritual well being as well. In Psalm 139, a portion of which is linked above and is the highlight scripture passage for today’s ODB entry. In it, King David, the author of the psalm, is clearly being open to a checkup by God’s Spirt, seeking to have his heart/mind examined by God and to be “fixed” … as Queen Latifah sings in today’s devotional song link.
Really it’s a good idea to have regular - if not daily - pauses to have God’s Spirit do a check-up of our spiritual health. That’s what the Apostle Paul wrote when he was exhorting the church in Corinth to do regular self-exams to see if their faith was healthy enough to be used by God for His glory [see 2nd Cor. 13: 5]. And when God convicts us of sin, the Apostle John wrote of how it behooves us all to confess that sin and be cleansed of that spiritual ill health [see 1st John 1: 9].
Personally, it is part of my quiet-time discipline every day, here as I use the ODB devotional and my journaling, to seek out my Jehovah Jireh, the Healer God, to do an exam of my spirit and to allow my Lord to do what Queen Latifah sings … “Fix me!!” …
How about you, … do you need a check-up today?
My Prayer Today: Oh, my Lord, … I yield to the words of David in today’s highlight passage and Queen Latifah’s soulful cry … If there is anything in me, Lord, that is not like You, Lord, … fix me, Jesus, fix me! … 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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