Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of an anonymous praise group singing … As Close As The Mention of His Name, expressing the truth expressed by our Lord Himself in His upper room discourse (i.e. John 16). And THEN ON TO THIS LINK for the Maranatha Singers sharing the song, There’s Just Something About That Name, with much the same message.
Highlight Passage: John 16:22 [NKJV] …
22 Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
… Focus on His Name for He has overcome our sorrows.
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Highlight Context – John 16 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus to His disciples to help them focus on Whom He really was when He went away. ============
Reference Passage #1 - Isaiah 26: 3 [NKJV] …
3 You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.
… The prophesy of peace for this who trust in The Messiah and focus on His Name.
Reference Passage #2 - Matthew 28: 19-20 [NKJV] …
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
… Jesus’ charge and commission to all believers … as well as His promise to be with us ALWAYS!!
Reference Passage #3 - John 16:33 [NKJV] …
33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
… if we believe and focus on the reality of His Name, … we can be overcomers too.
Reference Passage #4 - Hebrews 13:5b [NKJV] …
5 For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” [Deut. 32:5, 8]
… God’s promise that He will never forsake those who call on His Name.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Dave Eiger, taught about the natural feeling of separation we can have from lost loved ones. He wrote: We’ve all experienced times of separation from our loved ones. A child marries and moves far away. Parents are separated from us because of career or health. A child goes off to school in another state or country. True, we have texting and Skype. But we are here and they are there. And then there is the separation of death.
And I bet that any reader here has felt such separation anxiety when taken from a loved one, either in death or relational separation. We actually ought to be able to empathize with Jesus’ inner core of Disciples as their Messiah addressed them in that upper room the night before He would be led to the cross. Just imagine their confusion, fear and consternation as He told them that they were about to lose Him (read and meditate on John 16).
But Jesus told them that He would come again; and as He was elevated back into heaven, the disciples (so many of them besides the inner 11) heard Him promise that He would never leave them nor forsake them. And that is His promise to all who are true born-again believers … to me and you. And as the songs above sing, and the Scriptures proclaim, all we have to do is focus on the Name of JESUS and we can find peace in His presence and His promises.
Say it with me, … JESUS … JESUS … JESUS!! And don’t you feel it? As the song sings (linked above), … “there’s just something about that Name.”
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … Oh Lord … You are with me always!! 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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