Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please take the time to take in the poignant song, sung by Phillips, Craig, and Dean, All Is Well. … declaring that all is well in our relationship with Christ … PTL!!! … Hallelujah !!!
Highlight Passage - NKJV Isaiah 40: 26 … Having just enough!!! …
8b Give me neither poverty nor riches — Feed me with the food allotted to me; 9 Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God.
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Highlight Context #1 - Proverbs 30: 1-9 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK … Agur’s wisdom in recognizing the weakness of his own selfish heart
Reference Passage #1 … Jeremiah 17: 7-9 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK … The Prophet Jeremiah recognized the potential vulnerability of the human heart - see verse 9
Reference Passage #2 … Luke 9: 23 [NKJV] … How many times do I make reference to Jesus’ teaching on discipleship … I hope you know this one by heart!
Reference Passage #3 … Philippians 4: 11-13 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK … Paul had learned how to be content … the key was His abiding relationship with Christ …
Reference Passage #4 … 1st Timothy 6: 6-10 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK … Paul teaching us to reward of the harmful lusts which can overcome us in living for Christ - especially note verse 6 [see photo] which reports that “godliness with contentment is great gain”
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Mart De Haan, notes the often realized outcomes of lottery winners, gaining millions of dollars and then to squander the money and often become bankrupt or even end up committing suicide. Then, … there is the result of being abased by poverty, where the poor will often resort to stealing or even violence to try to live.
Today one of the authors of Proverbs, Agur [in this case see the link to Proverbs, Chapter 30 linked above], had discovered that he would have a vulnerability of his own selfishness if he became wealthy or for evil in his soul if he became poor. So, in the highlight passage, he prayed for God to allow neither in his life. Jeremiah, the Prophet wrote of the human tendency to be vulnerable to one’s own deceit-ridden, wicked heart (see Jer. 17: 9). And the Apostle Paul wrote (see Phil. 4: 11-13) of the antidote to a Christian becoming distorted by either wealth or privation, which was a deep and abiding relationship with Christ [see also 1st Timothy 6: 6-10].
What would happen to us if we won the lottery or all-of-a-sudden we became dirt poor? Would we be able to handle either condition as Paul wrote about to the Christians at Philippi or to Timothy?
Personally, I’m like Agur … I don’t trust myself to be able to handle great wealth; and I’m afraid I would have great trouble being consumed by poverty. I just feel terribly grateful that God has provided just enough to meet the needs of our family, with enough resources saved to protect against poverty. And I pray that I will always be trying to go deeper to achieve a more abiding relationship with my Lord, knowing that it is the key to what Paul wrote about to Christians or what Jesus demanded of His disciples (see Luke 9: 23).
My Prayer for Today … Lord, thank You for helping me to be content. 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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