Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video and lyrics from Josh Groban singing … You Raise Me Up … poignantly singing about how our God raises us up with the power of His grace to overcome the weaknesses in our humanity.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Amos 4:13a [NLT] … 13 For the Lord is the one who shaped the mountains, stirs up the winds, and reveals His thoughts to mankind.
… It is God’s empowering grace which sustains us.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Amos 4:12-13 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s Prophet reminds His people of God’s creative and sustaining power.
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Reference Passage [NLT] : … John 3:8 [NLT] … 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”
… Jesus teaches Nicodemus, and reminds us, that God’s Spirit is the power which saves and sustains us.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … John 15:5-7 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus teaches His disciples that He is our sustainer and our power; and apart from Him, we can do NOTHING!
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 reminds Paul and us of His power to give us strength in our weakness.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Amy Boucher Pye, uses a personal reflection of how windsurfing (see photo) is a picture of God’s empowering grace working to give us God’s power when we are weak in our humanity. The ODB author wrote: One day by the seaside, I delighted in watching some kite surfers as they bounced along the water, moved by the force of the wind. When one came to shore, I asked him if the experience was as difficult as it looked. “No,” he said, “It’s actually easier than regular surfing because you harness the power of the wind.”
Afterward as I walked by the sea, thinking about the wind’s ability not only to propel the surfers but also to whip my hair into my face, I paused to wonder at our God the Creator.
A powerful wind filling the sails of a windsurfer, or allowing golfers to hit the ball much farther than they are capable, are good pictures of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers doing what Josh Groban sings in the linked song; … i.e., to lift us up and give us the power the Apostle Paul wrote about in 2Cor. 12:9 … to give us strength when we are naturally weak.
I will pray this morning that all reading here are experiencing the energizing wind of God’s Spirit, empowering us to move way beyond our natural selves and to blow with Spirit-power to show others the power of God in our lives.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … Fill our sails, Lord, and blow us strongly where You want us to go! … 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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