Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of song, images, and lyrics from David Crowder and Tauren Wells singing … All My Hope … poignantly singing of how we, as Christians, can endure the storms of life because all our hope is in King Jesus.
USS Endurance - Shipwrecked in Antartica - 1914
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Highlight Verse[s]: Acts 27:21-22 [ESV] ... 21 Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. 22 Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
… Paul’s faith and trust in God allowed him to give the men hope in the Lord that they all would be saved from a shipwreck.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Acts Chapter 27 [ESV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… The detailed story from Paul, thru Luke, of Paul’s shipwreck and the faith of the men onboard in Paul who knew, from faith in God, that the ship’s crew would be saved from the disaster.
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Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [ESV] … 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.
… In ALL circumstances, … no matter what we perceive, … we must trust the Lord.
Reference Passage : … Romans 5:1-3 [ESV] … 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, …
… As Crowder sings in the linked song … “All our hope is in Jesus …”
Reference Passage : … 2Corinthians 12:9 [ESV] … 9 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
… Jesus promised Paul - and us - that His empowering grace was sufficient for us to endure any “shipwreck” in life.
Reference Passage : … James 1:2-3 [ESV] … 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
… God, thru James, exhorts Christians to faith which produces endurance - no matter what our trials.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Linda Washington, uses the historical story of a shipwreck in Antartica to illustrate how our faith can - and should - sustain us in times of trial. … The ODB author wrote: Ernest Shackleton (1874–1922) led an unsuccessful expedition to cross Antarctica in 1914. When his ship, aptly named Endurance, became trapped in heavy ice in the Weddell Sea, it became an endurance race just to survive. [see photo] With no means of communicating with the rest of the world, Shackleton and his crew used lifeboats to make the journey to the nearest shore—Elephant Island. While most of the crew stayed behind on the island, Shackleton and five crewmen spent two weeks traveling 800 miles across the ocean to South Georgia to get help for those left behind. The “failed” expedition became a victorious entry in the history books when all of Shackleton’s men survived, thanks to their courage and endurance.
And then the ODB author goes on to compare the wreck of the USS Endurance (above) to the shipwreck the Apostle Paul endured, related in Chapter 27 of Acts. Because both of these stories relate the strength we, as believers in Christ, experience and grow into when we endure the “shipwrecks” of life, … trusting God and holding on with faith, … not letting our human weaknesses prevail [see reference passages above].
So, my prayer today is for those who’re currently in a “shipwreck” … or those who anticipate heading into one soon. Because if - or rather, WHEN - we put all our hope in Jesus - and His empowering and sufficient grace - we can - and WILL - endure any shipwreck we encounter.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for giving me Your grace to endure the shipwrecks of life.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me today, to hold onto the faith which will bring us thru the shipwrecks of 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.</ span>
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