Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube of images and lyrics from Phillips, Craig, and Dean singing … Your Grace Still Amazes Me … poignantly singing how God’s mysterious and wondrous grace will always amaze those of us who don’t deserve it but receive it every day.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Jonah 4:2b [NKJV] … 6 … for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.
… But Jonah didn’t want God to exercise His grace to save the wicked Gentiles in Nineveh.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Jonah 3:10-4:4 [NKJV]… USE THIS LINK …
… God is gracious enough to forgive even our most selfish sins.
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Reference Passage : … Lamentations 3:22-23 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s grace extends to us every morning … and never ends.
Reference Passage : … 2Corinthians 12:9 [NKJV] … 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
… Jesus showed Paul, in a time of great weakness, that God’s grace will always be sufficient to give us the strength in our times of weakness.
Reference Passage : … 2Peter 3:9 [NKJV] … 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
… God, in His mercy/grace desires that all who would repent, come to Him for His saving grace.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Tim Gustafson, uses the ironic story of man saving a great whale to illustrate just how much more gracious God is with us sinners. The author wrote … Sighted numerous times off the coast of Australia’s South Queensland, Migaloo is the first albino humpback whale ever documented [see photo]. The splendid creature, estimated at more than forty feet long, is so rare that Australia passed a law specifically to protect him.
{With tongue in cheek …} How wonderful the grace of mankind to do all we can to protect this great mammal in spite of centuries of killing whales for human consumption to the point of almost eliminating certain species of these beautiful creatures. It’s an interesting paradox of mankind’s selfishness and God’s grace which is born out in the story of Jonah [see highlight passage].
Jonah had it in for the sinners of Nineveh; and God calls the Prophet to take a message of grace and salvation to these Ninevites. But Jonah so hated these Gentiles that he tried to escape his calling, ending up in the belly of that great fish, repenting, and praying for life, … which God, in His mercy, granted. Then, after finally preaching repentance and salvation to Nineveh, those hated peoples were saved by God’s mercy. But Jonah could not let his selfishness and hatred go, leading him to become depressed and suicidal over seeing God’s grace and mercy in action.
It all shows us that we’ve got to let our past (or current) selfishness go, … repenting, and letting God’s sufficient and amazing grace lead us to follow His way rather than seek our own ways. God’s mercies will always be there for us (see Lam. 3:22-23 and 2Pet. 3:9); and His grace will always be sufficient to overcome and cover our human weaknesses (2Cor. 12:9).
But as Phillips, Craig, and Dean sing … we must be willing to relent and repent to allow God’s amazing grace to overcome our humanity. Today is a good day for all us to let our selfishness go and respond to God’s grace.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for Your wondrous and sanctifying grace, which is new every morning.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Oh Lord, … I pray that all who read here, along with Yours truly, receive and use Your grace to rise above ourselves and show all around us Your mercies by our Christlikeness. … 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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