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 his strength … His Strength Is Perfect … poignantly singing of the reality that often we need God’s strength to lift us up in moments of vulnerability and weakness.
=============
Highlight Verse[s]: 1st Chronicles 16:11 [NLT] …
11 Search for the Lord and His strength; … continually seek Him.
… David exhorts the people to continually seek God’s strength to cover their weakness.
==============
Highlight Passage [context]: 1st Chronicles 16:11-18 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… King David reminds God’s people when the Ark was brought back to the Temple of the covenant strength God provides when His children are vulnerable.
=============
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Solomon shows us all the truth about trusting God in times of vulnerability.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Isaiah 40:31, 41:10 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… The Prophet reminds God’s people (us) of God’s strength when we’re weak.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … 2nd Corinthians 12:9 [NLT] …
9 Each time He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.
… Jesus reminded Paul that God’s empowering grace was his in his time of weakness.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Philippians 4:13 [NLT] …
13 I can do all things through Christ Who gives me His strength.
… Paul shows us where we get our strength in moments of weakness.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, James Banks, used a personal story to illustrate how we need to be willing to trust God for His strength in moments of weakness. The ODB author wrote: “Will we see any snakes?”
Allan, a young boy in our neighborhood, asked that question as we started on a hike by the river near our home [see photo].
“We never have before,” I answered, “but we might! So let’s ask God to keep us safe.” We paused, prayed together, and kept walking.
Several minutes later my wife, Cari, suddenly took a quick step backward, narrowly avoiding a poisonous copperhead partially coiled on the path ahead. We waited as the snake left the trail, giving it a wide berth. Then we paused and thanked God nothing had happened. I believe that through Allan’s question, God had prepared us for the encounter, and our prayer was part of His providential care.
Dear one, … have you, like the Allan in the ODB story, ever had a time when you felt vulnerable or weak with the unknown trail ahead seeming fearful (see photo)? … Of course, we all have. Well, when I was a baby Christian (even tho I was in my early 40s), feeling very vulnerable to my own obsessive/sinful weaknesses, my newly found mentor, a man strong in His faith, showed me how to apply trust in God’s word (i.e., truth) when I was feeling weak.
So, he taught me to imbed the reference scriptures above deeply into my consciousness and to stop and repeat them when I was feeling vulnerable or weakened in spirit. And to this day, when I’m feeling weak, as Steven Curtis Chapman sings in the linked song, I let God’s strength, from His words and promises cover me with HIS strength. And the fear may not always go away; but as SCC sings, “His strength is perfect when my strength is gone!”
So, if any of us is feeling weak today, let’s let King Jesus lift us up.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Dear Lord, … I will be speaking to a group of teenage boys today. I need Your strength to show them how You can empower them with 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