Tuesday, January 03, 2017

January 3, 2017 ... Hidden Reality

Berry Patch Devotions in 2017 - Day 3 

Devotional Song:  … GO TO THIS LINK …  Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from anonymous voice singing the 19th century Methodist hymn … Open My Eyes That I May See … poignantly singing a prayer I’m sure we all share … to have God give us His vision in our troublesome circumstances.


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Highlight Verse[s]: 2nd Kings 6:17 [NKJV] … 
17 And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he [the king’s servant] 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. 
… Elisha prayed to God to let the king’s servant the vision to see what his humanity had blinded him 
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Highlight Passage [context]: 2nd Kings 6:8-17 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK
… Elisha helped the young servant of the king of Syria see what what the young servant was blinded to see by his humanity.
============= Reference Passage #1 [NKJV] : … Psalm 91:11 [NKJV] … 
11 For He [the Lord] shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. 
 … God is watching over us even when we can’t see His plan or understand our circumstances.

Reference Passage #2 [NKJV] : … 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 acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. 
… What Jesus sees as our love gift to Him … total surrender … total obedience.

Reference Passage #3 [NKJV] : … Ephesians 6:10-13 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK
… Paul wrote of our daily battles where we often can’t see the spiritual forces we must stand against in faith that our God watches over us.

My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Jennifer Benson Schuldt, uses a rather humorous story to illustrate the point that things are often not what they seem to be in the surface The ODB author wrote: Don is a border collie who lives on a farm in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. One morning, he and his owner, Tom, set out to check on some animals. They rode together in a small farm utility truck. When they arrived, Tom left the vehicle but forgot to put the brake on. With Don in the driver’s seat, the vehicle rolled down a hill and across two lanes of traffic before it stopped safely. To watching motorists, it appeared the dog was out for a morning drive. Indeed, things are not always as they seem. 

And I think readers here would agree with me that often what we see or perceive in the trials/battles of life are unclear at best and many times totally confusing. What we, as Christians, desire is to see our circumstances as God sees them; but often our humanity can blind us to what’s really going on from God’s point of view.

That’s what the highlight passage today in 2Kings illustrates. Elisha prayed and helped a young servant of the king of Syria to see what he could not see from his own earthly perspective. And when we’re confused - in the midst of the trials/struggles/battles of life we need to believe in and seek God’s vision to allow us to move forward, trusting that He will see us through.

Please take in the linked song and the Reference passages above; and I think we’ll all move forward in this new year with the heart-felt desire to seek after God’s will and His way, allowing Him to open our eyes that we may see His truth and direction.

My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … Lord, … Help me to see Your will and way more clearly. ... 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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