Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of the group Selah singing the old hymn Be Thou My Vision… declaring the reality of our victory won by using the vision of King Jesus
Highlight Passage: Philippians 4:8 [NKJV] …
8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
… To thing God-honoring thoughts is to take the high ground of prayer.
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Highlight Context – Philippians 4:8-13 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul wanted his Philippian friends to be able to see the world from a Godly perspective
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Reference Passage #1 - Psalm 119: 105 [NKJV] …
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
… We all need to use His truth (i.e., the Bible) as our mental GPS to help us see His path.
Reference Passage #2 - Proverbs 3: 5-6 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… We can see God’s path only when we trust Him to lead us.
Reference Passage #3 - Ephesians 6:17-18 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s #1 battle strategy is to take/hold the high ground of prayer
Reference Passage #4 - Colossians 3:1 [NKJV] …
1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
… Going to the high ground of prayer is seeking the things which are above.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Dave Roper, uses a personal view to show how God’s high ground is the perspective we need to seek for daily spiritual warfare. He wrote: Our valley in Idaho can be very cold in the winter. Clouds and fog roll in and blanket the ground, trapping frigid air under warmer layers above. But you can get above the valley. There’s a road nearby that winds up the flank of Shafer Butte, a 7,500-foot mountain that rises out of our valley [see attached photo]. A few minutes of driving and you break out of the fog and emerge into the warmth and brilliance of a sunlit day. You can look down on the clouds that shroud the valley below and see it from a different point of view.
I think all who read with me here would agree that daily life is a battle; and the best place to be to fight a battle is on the high ground, isn’t it? And the Apostle Paul was trying his best in some of prison epistles to help fellow Christians in his day to seek, take, and hold the high ground in spiritual warfare, … which is PRAYER.
Paul wanted them (us) to know that the way we choose to think is that high ground strategy for battling our spiritual enemies; and when he wrote to Philippi, and Ephesus, and Colossi (and to all who would follow him in battle), he pointed them to use prayer as the high-ground battle strategy. Paul wanted his fellow Christians to realize, as Selah sings above, that the only way our vision would be through God’s eyes was when we’re thinking Godly thoughts (see Phil. 4:8) and the best way to choose to think with God, especially in daily spiritual warfare, was in prayer (see Eph. 6:17-18 AND Col. 3: 1).
So, my friend, join me at the high ground today as we do battle together here. Pray with me and hold that high ground for our Lord.
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … I come with You, here today, Lord, to take and hold the high ground of thought life in prayer and to use Your vision for battle. … 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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