Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of Christ Tomlin singing his song, Jesus Loves Me, … declaring, in song, the love Jesus ALWAYS has for His beloved ones.
Highlight Passage: Matthew 6: 26 [NKJV] …
26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; … yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
… Jesus preaches of the ever sustaining, always providing, love of His Father.
===========
Highlight Context – Matthew 6:25-34 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus declares openly to His followers of the life-sustaining and ever-present, caring love of God, the Father, for His children.
============
Reference Passage #1 - John 3:16 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… I’m sure most, if not all, know this Jesus quote by heart … but do we really believe it?
Reference Passage #2 - 2nd Corinthians 12: 9 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus lovingly lifts up a disconsolate Paul with His love and grace.
Reference Passage #3 - Hebrews 13:5 [NKJV] …
5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” [Deut. 31:6, 8]
… True love, … always there for those who truly believe.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Randy Kilgore, tells the story behind a well-known, but lonely cemetery in Boston where many well known figures in American history are buried. He wrote … Years ago I had an office in Boston that looked out on the Granary Burying Ground where many prominent American heroes are buried. There one can find the gravestones for John Hancock and Samuel Adams, two signers of the Declaration of Independence, and just a few feet beyond that is Paul Revere’s marker. … But no one really knows where in this burial ground each body is buried because the stones have been moved many times—sometimes to make the grounds more picturesque and other times so lawn mowers could fit between them. And while the Granary features approximately 2,300 markers, closer to 5,000 people are buried there! Even in death, it seems, some people are not fully known.
Any quiet cemetery can be a lonely place; but this one in Boston, where so many American luminaries are buried under grave stones which are inaccurate, would seem to be even more a lonely place. And as Randy Kilgore wrote, we may sometimes feel … “like those unmarked residents of the Granary,” … unknown and unseen. But for those of us who’ve been saved by the grace of God, knowing Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we can bask in the sunshine [or should I say “SONshine”} of God’s ever-present love and sustaining grace.
As Jesus said more than once (see Matthew 6:26 and John 3:16 above), … God is always with us to provide His love for us. The Author of Hebrews also stated, from God’s own words in the Old Testament, that our Lord will never leave, nor forsake, any who are His children.
So, being a child of God today along with me here, we’re covered by His grace, aren’t we? As Jesus said to Paul when he was feeling really low, "My grace is sufficient for you, …” ; and Paul really needed that encouragement in that moment (see 2nd Cor. 12: 9). Perhaps some of us need it today.
Therefore, if you’re a Christian, like me, we need to take in the song by Chris Tomlin, linked above, and know that we are the loved ones of God, our Father. And I will pray for us below.
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, …When we get low, Lord, … lift us up with Your love and grace. Oh, how we need Your grace!! … 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment