Thursday, October 27, 2016

October 27, 2016: Blessings In Reflection

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2016 - Day 301  

Devotional Song:  … GO TO THIS LINK …  Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from a Gaither gathering with the Martins singing … Count Your Blessings … a song joyously reflecting on all the blessings God has wrought in our lives.


Highlight Verse[s]: Numbers 33:2 [NKJV] …  
2 Now Moses wrote down the starting points of their journeys at the command of the Lord. And these are their journeys according to their starting points: … 
… Moses reflects and chronicles the blessings of God on the journey of His people in history. 
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Highlight Context: Numbers 33:1-49 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK 
… Moses reflects on God’s blessings upon His people in their trek from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.
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Reference Passage #1 … Job 1:13-22 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK 
… In all Job lost before Satan, he was able to hold onto his faith in His God.

Reference Passage #2 … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK 
… God’s charge to true believers to never forget His willingness to lead us through trials, trusting in even the challenges as blessings.

Reference Passage #3 … Romans 8:28 [NKJV] …  
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. 
…With this truth, we need to reflect and count our blessings every day, remembering how God delivers us thru times of trial.

My Journal for Today:  … Our Daily Bread author, David Roper, in teaching on reflecting on our blessings, went back to Moses writing of those times when God delivered His People. He wrote: Numbers 33 is a chapter in the Bible we might pass by without reflection. It appears to be nothing more than a long list of places tracing Israel's pilgrimage from Rameses in Egypt to their arrival in the plains of Moab. But it must be important because it’s the only section in Numbers that follows with the words: “At the Lord’s command Moses recorded . . .” (v. 2). 
Why keep a record of this? Could it be that this list provides a framework upon which the Israelites emerging from the wilderness could retrace that forty-year journey in their thoughts and recall God's faithfulness at each location? 

And today’s ODB entry caused me to go back, as did Moses in the highlight passage, and do what the Martin Family sings in today’s linked song … to “count our blessings.” And they are SO MANY in my life! … Oh, … sure I’ve been through a lot of brokenness and heartache in my over seven decades of life; but when I really reflect … honestly and carefully … on my years, just as did Job in the first chapter of his journal (see Job 1:13-22), I have to say that my challenges, though very real and often painful, were some of my greatest blessings.

So, perhaps any readers here today will join me in reflecting on the truth of Romans 8:28, recognizing that any/all trials in our lives were for our good; and no matter what we’re going through and where God is leading us, we must trust Him completely (see Prov. 3:5-6).

My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … Show me the way, Lord, … and thanks for the blessings of trials in my life, which show me Your love. … 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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