Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from Gordon Mote singing his song … Hold Me UP … Poignantly singing of how we all need to be held up by the love of our God … everyday we need Him … to hold us up.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 131:2 [NLT] … 2 But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.
… David found the filling for his love hole by pursing His God like a child pursues hugs from a mother.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Psalm 131 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… David’s plea, in song, for God’s love.
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Reference Passage [NLT] : … Psalm 63:1-4 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
... David, like us, earnestly seeks to find and be with our Lord.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Matthew 18:1-4 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK ...
… As Jesus taught, we need to be like a little child seeking the love of our Heavenly Father.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Ephesians 3:14-21 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK ...
… Paul prays that his fellow Christians (that’s you and me, too!) be rooted in the love of God.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Monica Brands, used a personal illustration of our need, as children of God, to see and receive His love just as a young child seeks the hugs of his/her mother. The ODB author wrote: As I was nearing the end of lunch with my sister and her children one afternoon, my sister told my three-year-old niece, Annica, it was time to get ready for her nap. Her face filled with alarm. “But Aunt Monica did not hold me yet today!” she objected, tears filling her eyes. My sister smiled. “Okay, she may hold you first—how long do you need?” “Five minutes,” she replied.
As I held my niece [see photo], I was grateful for how, without even trying, she constantly reminds me what it looks like to love and be loved. I think sometimes we forget that our faith journey is one of learning to experience love—God’s love—more fully than we can imagine.
Wow! … This one touched me, … because, as a young child, my mother had trouble showing her love for me affectionately. In fact I don’t remember ever being hugged by my mother as a young child. And I desperately longed for that closeness.
So, ... when I was introduced to sexual images (i.e, P0RN) when I was 12, I mistakenly felt that it provided me with the love feelings I had missed as a boy; and so I began pursuing those images to provide me with long lost “hugs.” And it led me into an addiction for pursuing this pseudo-intimacy for many years. But finally, I discovered that the love of God comes, in abundance, by pursing a deeper, more abiding, relationship with Christ.
And so now, this is why you find me here - every morning - getting my morning “hugs” from my Lord by being in this quiet place, sharing this intimate time with my loving Father in prayer and feeling His love coming thru His word. And every day I feel His hugs as He fills me up with His love.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … I pray that all reading here have gotten their hugs from You today. … 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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