Friday, September 08, 2017

September 8, 2017 … Carried Homeward

Berry Patch Devotions in 2017 - Day 251 

Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK …  Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from the group MarcyMe singing their song … Dear Younger Me … poignantly reflecting on a past life, with some regrets, but gratefulness to a God Who has redeemed us from our younger selves.


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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 30:1a [NLT] … 
1 I will exalt you, Lord, for you rescued me. ... 
… Oh, how so many of us can empathize with King David here, having been rescued and carried by God thru perilous times.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Psalm 30:1-12 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK
… King David reflects on how God brought him thru the tougher times earlier in life. 
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Reference Passage [NLT] : … Isaiah 40:30-31 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK
… The Prophet speaks of a Day when King Jesus will restore His people, in their weakness, with His strength.

Reference Passage [NLT] : … 2nd Corinthians 5:17 [NLT] … 
17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 
… When we come to Christ in surrender, He transforms us and makes all things new.

My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Monica Brands, used personal story to illustrate how we Christians can likely look back and reflect on how God carried us thru life, especially when were too weak to walk ourselves (see photo). The ODB author wrote: I recently stumbled across some of my journals from college and couldn’t resist taking time to reread them. Reading the entries, I realized I didn’t feel about myself then the same as I do today. My struggles with loneliness and doubts about my faith felt overwhelming at the time, but looking back now I can clearly see how God has carried me to a better place. Seeing how God gently brought me through those days reminded me that what feels overwhelming today will one day be part of a greater story of His healing love. 

Perhaps other readers here, like myself today, can look back at our younger lives and see how God directed us, and even at times carried us (see photo); and we could, as the inked song reflects, write a letter to our younger selves about our God giving us the strength to be lifted up when we couldn’t even walk ourselves.

And tho I’m not a betting man, I’d almost wager there are many of my readers here who could write of such reflections. And if so, we should, as I am this morning, be so grateful that our Lord pursues us and lifts us up to carry us when we’re weak or too lost to find our way home. And in doing so, He transforms us into a new person, made over into His own Image.

So, … with me today, let’s say our thanks to a loving, ever merciful, and protective Father, Who is bringing His children home, made over in His own image, to be with Him forever.

My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Dear Lord, … thanks for carrying me thru my past and transforming me in my present to have a future with You forever. … 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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