Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from the great song from the musical “Cats” … Memory … poignantly singing of a new day which begins every day the moon sets and the sun rises. … AND THEN TO THIS LINK to hear Chris Rice singing It Is Well With My Soul … expressing God’s desire for us to have His peace no matter our circumstances.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 126:3 [NKJV] …
3 The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad.
… And let’s never forget it.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Psalm 126 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… A song sung by the Jews to remember their time of ascent from Babylon back to Jerusalem … from captivity to freedom.
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Reference Passage #1 [NKJV] : … Habakkuk 3: 16-17 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… The Prophet came to focus on the reality that we can CHOOSE joy no matter what our circumstances because of our God’s love for us.
Reference Passage #2 [NKJV] : …John 3:16 [NKJV] …
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
… If we remember nothing else than this truth, we have eternal joy/peace/love.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, James Banks, used a very personal story to help his readers to do all we can to remember the good times when we’re in the midst of the bad times. The OBD author wrote: Our son wrestled with drug addiction for seven years, and during that time my wife and I experienced many difficult days. As we prayed and waited for his recovery, we learned to celebrate small victories. If nothing bad happened in a twenty-four-hour period, we would tell each other, “Today was a good day.” That short sentence became a reminder to be thankful for God’s help with the smallest things.
In tough times - hard times - it’s so easy to rehearse a lament like “WHY ME, LORD?” But today’s ODB helped me to remember that we need to ask the same question in the good times?
In today’s highlight passage from Psalm 126, we read of God’s people praising God for His deliverance from captivity in Babylon with a song that the Jews still sing, especially when they are in the midst of very bad times. And that’s what the attached photo represents for me. When I’m down in the dumpers, I’ve learned to recall memories, as today’s linked song sings, of special, lovely times. That photo takes me back to a place/time when God reminded me of His love for me, a memory which always is there for Christians in the truth of John 3:16.
That’s what the Prophet Habakkuk learned and expressed in his journal [see Habakkuk 3:17-18] … that we can choose to praise God with joy no matter what’s going on in our lives. So, I pray that all reading here have some joyful memory jewel that you can hold onto and remember when things are not going well in our lives; and we can say what the second song above sings … ”It is well with my soul!”
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … Yes, Lord, … because of Your love and grace, it is ALWAYS well with my soul. ... 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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