Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from Steven Curtis Chapman singing … Be Still and Know … poignantly singing of how our God is so faithful to us, willing and able to provide us with our needs, especially when we feel unable to carry our burdens.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Matthew 14:22-23 [NKJV] …
22 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. 23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.
… After and exhausting time feeding the multitudes, Jesus sends them away; and He goes up to a high place to be with His Father.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Matthew 14:13-23 … USE THIS LINK …
… After working in 100% obedience to Jesus’ heavenly Father, in His humanity and spirit, our Lord, The Christ, often needed time to be with His Abba Father … to refresh, to renew and to ready Himself to move on in service to His Father.
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Reference Passage #1 [NKJV] : … Matthew 11:28-30 [NLT] …
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
… Our Lord invites us to bring our burdens to Him and to let Him help us carry our load.
Reference Passage #2 [NKJV] : … Matthew 26:36 [NLT] …
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.”
… Carrying His greatest burden yet, Jesus needed to get alone with His Father to unburden His soul.
Reference Passage #3 [NKJV] : … 1st Corinthians 10:13 [NLT] …
13 No temptation [test, trial, or trouble] has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
…What a great truth and promise when we’re overburdened at times.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Jennifer Benson Schuldt, used a personal story to illustrate our childlike need to run to our Abba Father when we carry burdens too heavy for us to bare. The ODB author wrote: It was a busy morning in the church room where I was helping. Nearly a dozen little children were chattering and playing. There was so much activity that the room became warm and I propped the door open. One little boy saw this as his chance to escape so when he thought no one was looking, he tiptoed out the door. Hot on his trail, I wasn’t surprised that he was headed straight for his daddy’s arms.
The little boy did what we need to do when life becomes busy and overwhelming—he slipped away to be with his father.
Cute story; but one with a deeper truth with which we all can identify; … that quite often we need to follow Jesus’ example of going off ALONE to spend time and renewing prayer with our Heavenly Father. In His humanity, Jesus must’ve felt way overburdened, much like He must’ve in the Garden of Gethsemane just before going to the cross or after carrying out many of the miracles God’s Spirit empowered Him to perform to show His divinity to mankind.
And often we too can get overburdened by the weight of human circumstances, can’t we? And in those times what do we need to do? Well, I think anyone who’s taken in today’s linked song and the Scriptures provided knows that our Lord invites us to come to Him so that He, caring so deeply for our needs, can help us carry our load.
Maybe you, as in the picture, need to get alone with God and unburden yourself today. That’s what I’ve been doing this very morning, just before I wrote this journal entry; and I’m uplifted in spirit knowing that my God would never give me anything to carry which, along with His faithful help, I cannot carry [go meditate on 1st Cor. 10:13 above].
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … Lord, … It’s so uplifting being alone with You here. Help me, Lord! ... 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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