Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from Sara Groves singing her song … I’ll Wait … poignantly singing of how we, as disciples of Christ, so often have to work to overcome our impatient nature, waiting on our Savior to come and usher in His kingdom forever.
Highlight Verse[s]: Micah 5:4 [NLT] … 4 And He [Messiah] will stand to lead His flock with the Lord’s strength, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. Then His people will live there undisturbed, for He will be highly honored around the world.
… That time when all knees will bow and He will reign in peace forever.
==============
Highlight Passage [context]: Micah 5:2-4 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… The Prophecy for which we Christians await … that Jesus will come again to rule/reign over His Kingdom forever …
=============
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Mark 13:34-37 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus’ teaching His disciples, thru parable, to be willing to wait and watch for Him as their Lord and Messiah.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Acts 1:6-11 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… When Jesus ascended into heaven, the angels promised that He would return; but He left the Holy Spirit to give them (us) the power to wait for His return.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Romans 12:1-2 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul’s exhortation for Christians to avoid living as the world lives … but to live as Christ lived.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Titus 2:11-14 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Another of Paul’s exhortations to live for Christ as Christ taught and lived.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Amy Boucher Pye, uses an illustration about children waiting on Christmas to illustrate our difficulty waiting for our Savior to come again. The ODB author wrote: “How much longer until it’s Christmas?” When my children were little, they asked this question repeatedly. Although we used a daily Advent calendar to count down the days to Christmas [see photo], they still found the waiting excruciating.
We can easily recognize a child’s struggle with waiting, but we might underestimate the challenge it can involve for all of God’s people.
Well, I think we understand how it’s difficult for kiddies to wait for Christmas day as they see the tree decorated with presents waiting to be opened on that magical day. It’s just part of the job description of “a kid” to be impatient, isn’t it?
Then why are so many ADULT Christians so impatient in the way we live, not being willing to live as Jesus and the post-resurrection Apostles taught (see NT Scriptures above)? Yes, … it’s just in our sin-nature to be impatient, isn’t it? It goes way back to The Garden when Adam and Eve were unwilling to trust God at His word, and they set us up to be impatient just as they were.
But as we come down to Christmas day, let us choose to do all we can to patiently wait on our Lord to come again and usher in His kingdom of peace/joy forever. Let’s do all we can to live as He has taught us, and modeled for us, in His word.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … Oh, Lord, I wait on You! … 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