Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from Steven Curtis Chapman singing his song … Be Still and Know … poignantly and powerfully conveying the truth that we need to be still in our lives to be able to know God more intimately.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 46:10a [NLT] …
10 “Be still and know that I am God. …”
… God speaks, thru the psalmist, of our need to find intimacy with God in the stillness of our lives. But … where to find the stillness is the key!
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Highlight Passage [context]: Psalm 46:1-11 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… The Psalmist writes of being able to find God in all the clamor of the world.
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Reference Passage #1 [NLT] : … Joshua 24:15 [NLT] …
15 But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”
… Joshua made his choice as to Whom he would pursue. We have to make our choice.
Reference Passage #2 [NLT] : … 2Cor. 9:6-8 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul’s word picture shows that when we give only a small amount of quiet-time to God, He can return only a small amount of His enabling grace in return. But when we give Him a lot of dedicated time, He will return it many fold with His grace.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, David C McCasland, wrote of the state of our world to prevent our deepening relationship with God. The ODB author wrote: “We’ve created more information in the last five years than in all of human history before it, and it’s coming at us all the time” (Daniel Levitin, author of The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload). “In a sense,” Levitin says, “we become addicted to the hyperstimulation.” The constant barrage of news and knowledge can dominate our minds. In today’s environment of media bombardment, it becomes increasingly difficult to find time to be quiet, to think, and to pray. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God,” reminding us of the necessity to take time to focus on the Lord.
If you were Satan trying to keep Christians from praying and getting deeply into God’s word, what kind of a strategy would you develop? Well, you probably have already recognized that satan’s system of deterrence is already in operation … BIGTIME! In this digitalized information age, we are bombarded with informational overload. And we are captivated by our choice to devote our time to digital devices which distract us to their screens, where we spend hours being stimulated and even addicted to their lure.
Hence we become indentured slaves to what the world wants us to see/hear, rather than choosing to do what Steven Curtis Chapman sings in today’s linked song … to BE STILL and get to know God more intimately. We need to ask ourselves how much time we are choosing to devote to our relationship with God and how much time we’re choosing to devote to the clamor and confusion of the world.
Because if we don’t, as Paul taught in 2Cor. 9:6-8, plant our seeds of devotion, with disciplined time spend relating to God, we will be vulnerable to Satan’s system in the world, distracting us from those disciplines of solitude, prayer, and devotion to God’s word. And in doing so, we we will not be able to reap the benefits of God’s enabling grace.
Personally, as you can see by my time spent here in prayer and journaling God’s truth, with time alone, devoted to what God gives me daily, I’ve chosen to become addicted to this morning solitude, … rather than to be distracted by worldly informational overload. And as Joshua had chosen for himself (see Joshua 24:15), we have to choose for ourselves … Whom we will spend time with and serve.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Daily I will be here, Lord, … with YOU. … So, help me to avoid Satan’s distractions and bring me close to You in this stillness. … 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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