Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube of song and lyrics from Elvis Presley singing … My Way … sadly singing the anthem of the selfish … and the TAKE THIS LINK to hear Jeremy Camp singing the anthem of the selfless, … The Answer.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 34:12, 14 [NLT] … 12 Does anyone want to live a life that is long and prosperous? ... 14 Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it.
… God’s way is the only way to a happy and spiritually prosperous life.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Psalm 34:1-14 [NLT]… USE THIS LINK …
… David sings of the way to find happiness, contentment, and peace … following GOD’S WAY!
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Reference Passage : … Psalm 63:1 [NLT] … 1 O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for You; my whole body longs for You in this parched and weary land where there is no water.
… Searching for God’s way should be our exhaustive search in life.
Reference Passage : … Psalm 119:105 [NLT] … 105 Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.
… God’s word is the light to guide us down God’s way in life.
Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… We must trust and follow God for the way in life … HIS WAY!
Reference Passage : … John 15:7 [NLT] … 7 But if you remain in Me and My words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!
… Jesus tells His disciples exactly how they (we) must remain (i.e., abide) in Him to have happiness in this life.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, David H Roper, refers to a poet’s words and a song of David in teaching on what we must do to find happiness as Christians. The ODB author wrote: Often we hear that happiness comes from doing things our own way. That, however, is not true. That philosophy leads only to emptiness, anxiety, and heartache.
Poet W. H. Auden observed people as they attempted to find an escape in pleasures. He wrote of such people: “Lost in a haunted wood, / Children afraid of the night / Who have never been happy or good.”
The psalmist David sings of the remedy for our fears and unhappiness. “I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4). Happiness is doing things God’s way, a fact that can be verified every day.
As humans I think anyone would agree that we long - and search - for happiness in this life. God has placed in us an emptiness - what I call “the love hole,” which only He can fill with His love and grace. But unfortunately it is also our nature, our sin nature, to want to fill that hole with our own desires and by doing life, as Elvis sings, “MY WAY.”
But as Jeremy Camp sings (also linked above), there is another way to seek for THE ANSWER to our pursuit of happiness; and I would pray that we, as mature (or maturing) Christians, would realize the truth of what the scriptures above attest, … that the ONLY way to find happiness and contentment in this life (and peace as well) is to pursue GOD’S WAY.
And so, … that is my prayer for all of us today.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Lord, Jesus, thank You … thank You … for shining Your light of truth on Your way through, guiding us with Your word.
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My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Shine that light of truth on Your way brightly, Lord, so that we can’t help but see the way, YOUR WAY, in this life. … 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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