Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from Phillips, Craig and Dean singing their song … He’ll Do Whatever It Takes … poignantly singing of how God will clean up our mess … IF … we surrender and let His grace go to work.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Geneis 28:15 [NKJV] … 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you [i.e., Jacob and God’s chosen people] wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”
… God’s promise was (and is) FOREVER and did not depend on Jacob’s working for God’s blessing.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Genesis 28:10-22 [NKJV]… USE THIS LINK …
… Most of his life Jacob felt that he had to work and compete with his brother for God’s blessing … NOT TRUE !!! … God’s blessing was always secure in God’s covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob.
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Reference Passage : … Ephesians 2:8-10 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s grace of salvation/sanctification are His gifts and will always work themselves out in our good works … if we but surrender to His Spirit and let them do so.
Reference Passage : … Philippians 1:6 [NKJV] … 6 … being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; …
… We can “take it to the bank” that God will ALWAYS finish His promise of remaking us into His own image …
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Monica Brands, used an illustration we have all likely experienced [see photo] to illustrate our nature of thinking we must do ALL the work of cleaning up our lives. The ODB author wrote: “I got myself into this mess, so I’d better get myself out,” … I sometimes find myself thinking. Although I believe in a God of grace, I’m still prone to act as if His help is available only when I deserve it.
Do I sense anyone, like myself, declaring “Amen; … Been there before!!” Yes, it’s true that our works are used by God to express our salvation (i.e., in sanctification). However, like it was with Jacob (see highlight passage), God’s promise to Jacob was that He, the Lord, would bring Jacob and God’s people the blessed promised land; and this did not require Jacob to do all he felt he had to, conning and conniving with his brother, for God’s blessing.
God’s ultimate blessing - of His saving/sanctifying grace - was worked out for us - COMPLETELY - by Jesus on the Cross; … and it’s God’s promise - as it’s expressed in today’s song - that God’ll do whatever it takes to bring us to the place where we’re reshaped into the image of His Son (see Phil. 1:6) and all we have to do is surrender to His Spirit and let our works be a reflection of His grace (see Eph. 2:8-10).
So, yes, our life is messy; … but today [and tomorrow] let’s let God, thru our works, clean up the mess … for HIS glory, not our own satisfaction.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Lord, Jesus, thank You for Your eternally offered grace which empowers me to work for Your glory.
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My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit ... O Lord, … pour the power of Your grace into all that I do in Your Name. … 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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