Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of song and lyrics from worshippers singing Horatio Spafford’s great hymn … It Is Well With My Soul … powerfully singing of how we as Christians can gratefully worship the Lord even in the worst of life’s circumstances.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 118:1 [NLT] … 1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
… Grateful for God’s eternal love.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Psalm 118:1-14, 26-29 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… A grateful son of God expresses his gratitude in song.
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Reference Passage : … Psalm 46:1-3 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK ...
… Believers recognizing that God will be our refuge no matter what we encounter in life.
Reference Passage : … Isaiah 41:10 [NLT] … 10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
… God’s promise to be there for us … even in your weakest moments.
Reference Passage : … 1 Thessalonians 5:18 [NLT] … 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
… God’s challenge, thru Paul, that we ALWAYS be thankful to our Lord.
Reference Passage : … Hebrews 13:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK ...
… God thru the Author quotes from OT assurance that our LORD will ALWAYS be there for us … no matter what we face in life.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Tim Gustafson, used the gratefulness of a married couple making their vows, before God, to stand with one another for life no matter what life might bring. The ODB author wrote: On our wedding day, [my wife] and I gladly vowed to be faithful “in good times as well as in bad, in sickness as well as in health, for richer or for poorer.” In a way it may seem strange to include vows about the bleak reality of bad times, sickness, and poverty on a cheerful wedding day. But it underscores the fact that life often has “bad” times.
And even in the worst of times, our God promises never to leave us [Heb. 13:5-6], and to lift us up when we’re weak (Isaiah 41:10). And if a fellow reader has ever heard the story of why and how Horatio Spafford wrote the linked song, It Is Well With My Soul, it illustrates powerfully how we can be grateful for God’s enabling/empowering grace, … yes, even in life’s most horrible times. {Readers can hear of Spafford’s story AT THIS LINK.
Certainly it is hard to hold on, with a grateful heart/mind, to faith in the midst of terrible life circumstances. However, if we truly believe God’s word and His promises, we can … and we must.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Lord, Jesus, thank You for Your vows to me of Your presence and power to lift me up when I’m down.
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My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … Give me the grace to hold on to Your promises when life is at its worst. … 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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