Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube of images and lyrics from Daniel O’Donnell singing … Here I Am Lord … poignantly singing of the commitment to serve the Lord which comes from being available to give of our lives with/for Him.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Daniel 6:10 [NLT] … 10 But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God.
… Daniel, even when his life was threatened by injustice and lions, maintained his discipline of prayer and serving God; and we know how God protected him from the king and the lions.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Daniel 6:10-22 [NLT]… USE THIS LINK …
… Even when threatened by injustice, Daniel maintained his discipline of faith with His God; and from that discipline we know that God gave him favor and protection from the lions.
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Reference Passage : … Philippians 2:12-18 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Paul, exhorts Christians to be diligent and disciplined in serving God and spending time with Him.
Reference Passage : … Philippians 2:12-13 [NLT] … 12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
… Paul so wanted fellow Christians to find what He had from spending time with and serving his Lord.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Keila Ochoa, used the research of a psychologist who showed that DISCIPLINE is the common trait of hyper-achievers in life. When educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom, researching how to develop talent in young people, examined the childhoods of 120 elite performers—athletes, artists, scholars—he found that all of them had one thing in common: they had practiced intensively for long periods of time.
Bloom’s research suggests that growing in any area of our lives requires discipline. In our walk with God, too, cultivating the spiritual discipline of regularly spending time with Him is one way we can grow in our trust in Him.
“DISCIPLINE” … is a concept that many Christians find very difficult to develop, … especially being willing to devote and invest disciplined daily devotional time into our lives. But years ago a mentor helped me learn what Daniel learned and practiced in the highlight passage, where God delivered him from the lions because Daniel was so disciplined in his devotion to his God.
And in the reference passage of Philippians 2 above, the Apostle Paul so wanted Christian friends (and that’s you and me, too!) to follow his lead and serve God with deep reverence and devotion. That’s why you find me here every morning, my friends, … in prayer and journaling what God gives to me thru His word; … because I know that investing this time is investing in eternity, bringing me closer and closer to my Lord every day.
I pray that all who read this have found that serving God, thru a daily quiet time with Him, is one of the most valuable ways to spend our time.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, thank You, Lord, … for Your presence every morning when I come to share the sweetest fruit of my time with You every day.
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My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all who come here to be with me any morning, reading my journal entries, find You, as have I, building eternal intimacy into our lives. … 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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