Saturday, August 06, 2016

August 6, 2016: Looking Up

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2016 - Day 219  

Devotional Song:  … GO TO THIS LINK …  Please take the time to take in a You Tube video of Michael W Smith, leading in worship and singing … Open The Eyes Of My Heart, poignantly praying in song that God open the eyes of believers to see His glory. … And then ON TO THIS LINK  to hear Alan Jackson singing, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, following God’s desire that we look up ... upon His Son ... always.


Highlight Passage:  2 Kings 6:17  [NKJV] …  
17 And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 
… God opened the eyes of the King’s messenger so that he may see God’s army.
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Highlight Context – 2 Kings 6:8-17 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK 
… God can/will open the eyes of unbelief to behold His glory.
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Reference Passage #1 … Hebrews 11:1, 12:1-2 [ NKJV] … USE THIS LINK 
… God gives us the way for our eyes to be fixed … on His Son, Jesus!!

My Journal for Today:  … Our Daily Bread author, Marion Stround, used a life picture to illustrate how we can get down in our selves, due to life’s circumstances to ignore God’s glory in our lives. He wrote: Emil was a homeless man who spent a whole year looking down at the pavement as he plodded around the city day after day. He was ashamed to meet the eyes of others in case they recognized him, for his life had not always been lived out on the streets. Even more than that, he was intent on finding a coin that had been dropped or a half-smoked cigarette. His downward focus became such a habit that the bones of his spine began to become fixed in that position so that he had great difficulty in straightening up at all. 

And then the ODB author, in the highlight passage (above), … used the biblical story of Elisha when the Prophet helped the king’s servant to look up and see God’s glory; … and to get his eyes off of his own fears. And that’s why the author of Hebrews [see Hebrews 11/12 above] also gives us as God’s desire to help us see our way through life.

So, after taking the time to deeply hear and internalize the songs, linked above, I had to ask myself if I was letting internal or worldly matters take my eyes off of my Savior. Perhaps any readers here today need to ask the same question.

My Prayer Today:  O, Heavenly Father, … Lord Jesus, … open my eyes this day that I may see your power and love, i.e., Your glory, manifest in 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, 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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