Devotional Songs: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of Laura Story singing the song she wrote, Blessings, expressing the truth that so often God’s blessings masquerade as challenges in life … and THEN TO THIS LINK to hear Steve Green singing Find Us Faithful with God’s call for us to trust Him completely, … yes, even when things are totally meaningless.
Highlight Passage Job [ESV] …
1 And the Lord said to Job: 2 “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.”
… God lays it out to Job …
============ Highlight Context - Job 40: 1-14 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God putting Job in his place, … letting him know … God is God and he is not!!
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Reference Passage #1 - Proverbs 3: 5-6 [ESV] …
5 Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. 6 In ALL your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.
… When things don’t make sense, we must trust that God is leading us.
Reference Passage #2 - Isaiah 55: 8-9 [ESV] …
8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, … neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
… God, through Isaiah, putting us in our place.
Reference Passage #3 - Habakkuk 1: 5 [ESV] …
5 “Look among the nations, and see; … wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe it told.
… God sets the Prophet straight from his conclusion.
Reference Passage #3 - Romans 8: 28 [ESV] …
28 And we know that for those who love God ALL things work together for good, for those who are the called according to His purpose.
… Awe common God, … ALL things?!! … REALLY?!!
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Jennifer Schuldt, opens her teaching by showing how mysterious are the writings of the Chinese to us westerners who don’t have a clue as to how the pictograms have meaning (see attached photo). To me, Chinese writing is more than mysterious. The writings are utterly inscrutable, … sort of like God’s ways at some times in my life.
I’m not a betting man, … but if I were, I’d wager that anyone reading here with me has had times in our lives when we were clueless as to what God was doing in our life. I certainly have had times like that; and according to God’s word, I’m certainly not alone. … Yes, besides you and me, there were many Bible figures who experienced confusion and confounded emotions over what God was allowing into their lives.
Think of Joseph being tossed in prison unjustly when he refused Potifer’s wife. … Think of Moses when he was confronted at the burning bush with God’s charge to free His people. … And there was Elijah who was so confused he wanted to die being chased by Jezebel. … And of course, there was Job, a most righteous man, whom God allowed to be felled by Satan. … And finally, I think of Habakkuk, who couldn’t make head’s-nor-tails of why God was allowing His people to sin they way they were in Habakkuk’s times.
All of them, men of God, saw what was going on in their lives; and just couldn’t make sense of God’s ways. And we’re no different, are we? When things get confusing and confounded around us, we have a tendency to lose faith, don’t we? … But for those who keep-on-keeping-on and keep pursuing their relationship with God - in faith - as did all of the Bible figures above - God will ultimately (as Solomon declared in Proverbs 3: 5-6) honor their faith by setting their paths straight.
So, please take the time to take in the songs and Scriptures I’ve provided above, and let’s stay the course of trusting God - no matter what’s happening in our lives as Christians. God is GOD; and we are not! And let’s not forget it!!
My Prayer Today: Oh Lord, … when things get confusing in my life, help me to trust You … and only You … to light my way. 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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