Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube of song and lyrics from Chris McClarney singing … Beauty for Ashes … poignantly singing of our good God redeems us into oases of beauty from the storms of life.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 107:35 [NLT] … 35 But he also turns deserts into pools of water, the dry land into springs of water.
… God turning the barren deserts into oases by the storms of life.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Psalm 107:1-16, 35-36 [NLT]… USE THIS LINK …
… The Psalmist praises God for redeeming the parched deserts with His rain storms just as He redeems us from the ashes of our sinfulness.
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Reference Passage : … Psalm 23:1-4 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… David shows that we need not fear the storms of life as God uses them to lead us into His green meadows.
Reference Passage : … Romans 8:28, 38-39 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Paul, show us that nothing can separate a true disciple of Christ from His love, … no, not even the storms of life, which God uses for our good and His glory.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Monica Brands, uses a situation from her youth to illustrate how God uses the storms of life to redeem us. The ODB author wrote: I’ve always loved a good thunderstorm. As kids, whenever a storm was truly incredible—with booming thunder and buckets of heavy rain pounding down—my siblings and I would make a mad dash around the outside of our house, slipping and sliding along the way. When it was time to go back inside, we were soaked to the bone.
It was an exhilarating taste—for just a few minutes—of being immersed in something so powerful we couldn’t quite tell whether we were having fun or terrified.
I think, even as mature Christians, we have a tendency to forget the truth of the passages from Romans 8 above, … especially when we encounter the storms of life. When the thunder/lightening crackles all around us in the trials/temptations of life, we forget that God uses these storms to redeem us and let the beauty of Christlikeness to bloom forth from us … just as the flowers bloom in the desert after a thunderstorm (see photo).
That’s what the Psalmist was picturing in the highlight passage above in Psalm 107, wasn’t he? So, today, if any reader here is going thru a storm, let’s look at the lightning of temptation or feel the winds of trouble, knowing that our God is going to use the storm to bring some beauty into our life … just as Chris McClarney sings in the linked song.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Lord, Jesus, thank You for Your storms which turn my barren desert into an oasis of Christlikeness.
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My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … Lead me thru this storm into Your meadow of 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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