Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from Steven Curtis Chapman singing … Be Still and Know … poignantly singing of how we must patiently wait on God to do His transforming work in us.
Painted Turtles sunning themselves
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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 40:1 [ESV] ... 1 I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard my cry.
… We must be patient, knowing that God hears our cries for help.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Psalm 40:1-5, 14-17 [ESV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… As we trust in God and wait on HIs mercy and grace, He hears our cries of need.
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Reference Passage : … Psalm 46:8-10 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… We need to exercise the patience God gives to us to wait on Him to transform us into His image (and He will! - see Phil. 1:6)
Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Avoiding our own feelings and self perceptions, we must trust that God will lead us on His path and for His glory.
Reference Passage : … 2 Corinthians 12:9 [ESV] … 9 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” …
… Patiently waiting on God’s transforming grace to do His work to strengthen us into His image.
Reference Passage : … Philippians 1:6 [ESV] … 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
… We’ve just got to be patient that God is going to do His good work in transforming us into His Son’s image.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Amy Peterson, uses a reference to turtles patiently waiting to grow, as God designed them, as an example of how we must patiently wait on the transforming work of God’s Spirit to transform us into the image of our Lord. … The ODB author wrote: Every fall, when the painted turtle senses winter coming, she dives to the bottom of her pond, burying herself in the muck and mud. She pulls into her shell and goes still: her heart rate slows, almost stopping. Her body temperature drops, staying just above freezing. She stops breathing, and she waits.
For six months, she stays buried, and her body releases calcium from her bones into her bloodstream, so that she slowly begins even to lose her shape. But when the pond thaws, she will float up and breathe again. Her bones will reform, and she will feel the warmth of the sun on her shell. [See photo]
My wife would confirm that of all the “fruit of the Spirit” (see Gal. 5:22-23 if you don’t know them), PATIENCE is my least mature and weakest part of my character development into Christlikeness. I definitely need more of what Steven Curtis Chapman sings in the linked song … to be still (like the painted turtle), letting God transform me into the image He created me to become (see reference Scriptures above).
Perhaps other readers here need to be willing to patiently let God do His thing in our lives, … transforming us and giving us the grace to become more like our Lord … day by day by day. Let’s be patient today and let Him do His work in and thru us.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for giving us Your grace to be transformed into Your image.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me today, to know that God is doing His thing to transform us into His image. 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.</ span>
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