Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube images and lyrics from Laura Story singing her song … Blessings … poignantly singing declaring the truth that many of God’s greatest blessings come in the trials, providing us with Gods’ mercies in disguise.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Job 1:21 [NLT] … 20 Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. 21 He said, …“I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!”
… Job declares his praise for and his faith in The Lord … NO MATTER WHAT!!
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Highlight Passage [context]: Job 1:13-22 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Job retains his trust/faith in God thru horrible … painful … affliction.
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Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Again, in yet another devotional, … God points to me (and you) being able to trust God in all circumstances … a lesson Job had to endure a lot to finally TOTALLY believe in his [our] God’s sovereignty.
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, thru the Prophet, promises that His hand would always be there to give us strength to deal with the trials of life. … But do we believe it?
Reference Passage : … Romans 8:28 [NLT] … 28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
… Do we really realize and have faith that ALL THINGS are for the good of those of us who’ve surrendered to receive God’s saving - and sanctifying - grace?
Reference Passage : … Philippians 4:11-13 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… The Apostle Paul came to realize and live the truth that our relationship in Christ can bring us thru any circumstance … with the Lord’s strength lifting us up.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Adam Holz, uses an athletic word picture to illustrate that faith in God is our only hope strategy for life. The ODB author writes … Ann Voskamp’s book “One Thousand Gifts” encourages readers to search their lives each day for what the Lord has done for them. In it, she daily notes God’s abundant generosity to her in gifts both large and small, ranging from the simple beauty of iridescent bubbles in the dish sink to the incomparable salvation of sinners like herself (and the rest of us!). Ann contends that gratitude is the key to seeing God in even the most troubling of life’s moments.
The Bible journal attributed to Job has always been one of the strongest biblical teachings on dealing with loss, privation, and pain. In it we see a believer retain his faith thru the worst of pain and loss and even thru the personal quandary of doubt which comes from such privation. And it always, at least for this humble Christian, raises the question in me as to whether I could hold onto my faith if I were to encounter even a portion of such loss/pain.
But when I look at and remember, as Laura Story sings in the linked song, … that even the greatest Jobian-like challenges of life are likely God’s “blessings in disguise,” I realize that even if I lost everything, I would still be a blessed man because of what God has given me by coming to earth, dealing with the temptations of life, and dying on a cross to shed His blood for my salvation.
Yes, I am truly a blessed man no matter what may come my way. But Lord, I pray for myself and anyone reading her that we don’t have to endure any such “Jobian” challenges to prove our trust and faith in You.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for being there with Your strength to cover my weaknesses.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all reading here can, and will, be able to always recognize that even the challenges of life are Your blessings. … 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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