Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from Sara Groves singing here song … It’s Going To Be Alright … poignantly and powerfully singing of how we gain God’s perspective and His strength when we’re willing to bring our troubles to Him.
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Highlight Verse[s]: 2 Kings 19:14 [NLT] …
14 After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord’s Temple and spread it out before the Lord.
… The worried King knew exactly where and to Whom he should take his overwhelming problems, … exactly where we should take ours!
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Highlight Passage [context]: 2 Kings 19:9-19 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… When King Hezekiah was overwhelmed by the Assyrian forces, he took his worries to God; and God gave Him His peace.
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Reference Passage [NLT] : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… When we don’t know where to go with our worries/problems, … how about trusting God?
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Isaiah 26:3 [NLT] …
6 You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, … all whose thoughts are fixed on You!
… But we so easily let our minds focus on our troubles, don’t we?
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Philippians 4:6-7 [NLT] …
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
… So simple and true; but in our controlling nature, so difficult to do.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … 1 Peter 5:7 [NLT] …
7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
… Simple plan; but when we’re overwhelmed, it’s the only plan that will work.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Kirsten Holmberg, used personal story to illustrate how we focus on our own perspective to our problems rather than taking them to God. The ODB author wrote: As a teenager, when I became overwhelmed by enormous challenges or high-stakes decisions, my mother taught me the merits of putting pen to paper to gain perspective. When I was uncertain whether to take specific classes or which job to pursue, or how to cope with the frightening realities of adulthood, I learned her habit of writing out the basic facts and the possible courses of action with their likely outcomes. After pouring my heart onto the page, I was able to step back from the problem and view it more objectively than my emotions allowed.
Just as recording my thoughts on paper offered me fresh perspective, pouring our hearts out to God in prayer helps us gain His perspective and remind us of His power.
Years ago, with the help of a mentor, I learned that starting each day in prayer and surrender to God and taking my troubles to Him and focusing on where He was taking me, took a lot - if not most - of the stresses and pressures off of my mind/heart. And that was the strategy we read in today’s highlight passage, telling the story of how King Hezekiah, who was under siege by the all-conquering Assyrians, took His problems and laid them out before God.
And Hezekiah got the same message from God which Sara Groves wrote about and sings in the linked song today, … that “it’s going to be alright!” And after you take in that song and today’s reference scriptures, I hope you can see why I start each day, taking my cares to my Lord, laying them out before Him, taking in His truth, and then writing down the thoughts, mostly from His word, in these journal entries.
I find that in this discipline, I start each day with God’s peace rather my own worries; and that, my friends, is a much better way to start the day than wrapping myself in my own problems.
Do I sense an “AMEN” out there?
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Dear Lord, … I’m so grateful for the peace You give me by being here with You to start each day. … 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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