Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please take the time to take in the lyrics and hear an anonymous group singing the old hymn, the lyrics written by Martin Luther, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. worshipping God and singing of the truth of Whom we rest and have our being - our mighty God!!
Highlight Passage - NKJV Psalms 46: 10a …
10 Be still, and know that I am God; …
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Highlight Passage, Version #2 - NET Psalms 46: 10a …
10 He says, “Stop your striving and recognize that I am God! …”
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Highlight Passage , Version #3 - TLB Psalms 46: 10a …
10 ”Stand silent! Know that I am God!…”
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Highlight Context - NKJV: Psalms 46 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK … God is our refuge … ALWAYS !!
Reference Passage #1… Deuteronomy 31: 6, 8 — GO TO THIS LINK … We need never be anxious because God will never forsake us. He even goes ahead of us.
Reference Passage #2… Psalms 37: 7a [NKJV] … Faith is our resting power …
7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; …
Reference Passage #3… Philippians 4: 6-7 — GO TO THIS LINK … Paul repeating Jesus’ teachings to avoid any anxiety … but to rest in the care of the Lord …
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Joe Stowell, began his devotional by describing an old game we used to play at halloween parties … i.e., bobbing for apples, … where the contestant had to hold his hands behind his back and dunk in a tub of water and try to grab a floating apple in his mouth, getting prize if successful, but likely getting dunked in the process. That’s what sparked Stowell’s title for this ODB entry, which I have stolen for my blog today … “HANDS OFF!”
Well, the title also fits the essence of Stowell’s highlight verse for the ODB devotional, … Psalm 46: 10a, because the praise “BE STILL” in the verse, where God declares, “Be still and know that I am God …” is the Hebrew term “rapha,” which means … to be quiet, … also to relax … or to let go … or to refrain or forsake … or to let something or someone drop from concern.
As God, through the Psalmists in Psalms 37:7 and 46:10 [see above], where the term “rapha” was used, were trying to exhort, we believers in the living God should drop our natural desires to take control; and as the song I’ve linked above, we should take refuge in our mighty God, Who is our fortress of every situation in life, no matter how anxiety producing.
The term “rapha,” as in Psalm 46: 10a or Psalm 37: 7, is much like the military commands such as “at ease” or “stand down.” God is saying, as even Paul in the NT exhorted in Phil. 4: 6-7 that we are to be anxious about NOTHING; because as the song proclaims (linked above), He, our Lord, is our refuge; and as God declares in Deuteronomy 31: 6, 8 (also linked above) our God will never NOT drop us or forsake us; and He will even go ahead of us to forge our way through the toughest of times.
So, can we take refuge in our God today, and drop our own hands of control, and let God be God … because we are NOT ?!!
My Prayer for Today … Lord; … TODAY … help me to go “hands off” and let You take control. … 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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