Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from Sara Groves singing her song … All Right Here … poignantly declaring who we are in our relationship with our Lord.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 46:1 [NLT] …
1 God is our refuge and strength, and always read to help in times of trouble.
… God’s there for us no matter the “What if?” we feel or when we in the deepest pif of our life.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Psalm 46: 1-7 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… King David declares God's strength for us … NO MATTER WHAT !!!
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Reference Passage #1 [NLT] : … Psalms 23:4a [NLT] …
4 Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me. …
… No matter where we are, our Lord walks with us.
Reference Passage #2 [NLT] : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK ...
… God’s promise of His faithful leading, … yes, even when we’re in the darkest places.
Reference Passage #3 [NLT] : … Hebrews 13:5 [NLT] …
5 “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you?”
… The Author of Hebrews quoting God’s promise to Moses and His people (Deut. 31:6)
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, David Branon, used a dark personal remembrance to illustrate living in the “WHAT IS” rather than the “WHAT IF?” The ODB author wrote: Even all these years after losing our seventeen-year-old daughter Melissa in a car accident in 2002, I sometimes find myself entering the world of “What If.” It’s easy, in grief, to reimagine the events of that tragic June evening and think of factors that—if rearranged—would have had Mell arriving safely home.
In reality, though, the land of “What If” is not a good place to be for any of us. It is a place of regret, second-guessing, and hopelessness. While the grief is real and the sadness endures, life is better and God is honored if we dwell in the world of “What Is.”
I think many - if not all - of us have been in that “If I’d only” place in life, where we take ourselves into a dark place of “WHAT IF” … where self doubt causes us to live in anguish as with our ODB author today. But God wants us to live in His gracious land of “WHAT IS,” which He has gifted all who would trust Him rather than questioning our selves.
What is? … Well, it’s God ALWAYS being there for us when we’re waking through the valley of the shadow of death [Ps. 23:4]. It’s our Lord being our rock and our strength, when the earth is shaking beneath our feet [Ps. 46:1]. It’s Jesus’ blood covering all our “what ifs” when we come to Him in faith and surrender to His finished work.
Hence, today I sing with Sara Groves, even though things look very dark and I’m pondering a lot of “what ifs” in my life right now, … singing her song, I am All Right Here.
And I AM, … because I do trust in my Lord to be my rock, my strength, and my light through the darkness. I pray we are all living in the WHAT IS rather than in the WHAT IF.
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … Lord, I anchor my faith to You, … my Rock! … 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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