Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of Alan Jackson singing the old hymn, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus,… declaring, in song, our need to look up from the realities of life onto the Eyes of our Savior, who’s always willing to pour His grace into the lives who look to Him.
Highlight Passage: Psalm 146:8 [NKJV] …
8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind; … The Lord raises those who are bowed down; … The Lord loves the righteous.
… Listen to the counsel of wisdom to avoid getting burned out for the future.
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Highlight Context – Psalm 146: 1-10 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God opens the eyes of those who look upon Him in humility, belief, and reverence.
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Reference Passage #1 - Luke 4: 16:21 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK … … Jesus declares His mission, which includes giving sight to the [spiritually] blind and to lift up (and free) the downcast [a restatement and fulfillment of the Prophesy of Isaiah 61:1-2 ... 700+ years earlier]
Reference Passage #2 - Hebrews 12:2 [NKJV] …
15 … looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, …
… We must turn our eyes upward - off of self - and unto the eyes of our Lord and Savior.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, David McCasland, uses an interesting word picture to illustrate how Christians tend to look down and into our selves for answers, when the only true answers can come from looking UP onto the eye of Jesus. He wrote … An article in the Surgical Technology International Journal says that looking down at a smart phone with your head bent forward is the equivalent of having a 60-pound weight on your neck [see attached image]. When we consider that millions of people around the world spend an average of 2-4 hours daily reading and texting, the resulting damage to neck and spine becomes a growing health concern. … It is also easy to become spiritually bowed down by the burdens of life. How often we find ourselves discouraged by the problems we face and the needs of those we love.
The unknown psalmist of today’s highlight passage (from Psalm 146) knew that the answer for our downcast view of life was to LOOK UP … to our Savior/Messiah in faith, … knowing that it is our Savior’s mission to give sight to the blind and lift up the ones who look UP to Him in faith [see Christ's mission in Luke 4]. The ODB author today points to our tendency to look down (like we do so often into our cell phones today) which causes us to look away from the One - and ONLY ONE - who can lift us up and save from from our selves and our sin.
Let’s think about that today when we’re looking down into our cell phone for answers. Let’s realize that we need to do what Alan Jackson sings in the old linked hymn above and turn our eyes (UPWARD) to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith [see Hebrews 12:2).
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … I look UP to You today!! … 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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