Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in YouTube images with Steven Curtis Chapman singing … Be Still and Know … poignantly singing and helping us to ponder our relationship with our our God.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Luke 2:18-19 [NLT] … 18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, 19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.
… Imagine thoughts which Mary had as she had just brought the Messiah into this world.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Luke 2:8-20 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… That night when the shepherds came to see the Christ child caused Mary to ponder who she was to be the arch of the New Covenant and the mother of the Son of God.
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Reference Passage : … Psalm 63:1-4 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Every morning in my quiet time with God, I stop to ponder my search to know my God with these words.
Reference Passage : … Psalm 139:23-24 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Pondering our lives with the desire for God to lead us along HIS paths in life.
Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Over and over, in yet another devotional, … I keep harkening back to the thoughts we should ponder always, knowing and trusting that our God will lead us thru this troubled life.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, David C McCasland, uses a story of a great Bible teacher to illustrate how we must continually ponder our lives to see where we are on our quest to know God more intimately. The ODB author writes … During Oswald Chambers’ years at the Bible Training College in London (1911–15), he often startled the students with things he said during his lectures. One young woman explained that because discussion was reserved for the following mealtime together, Chambers would frequently be bombarded with questions and objections. She recalled that Oswald would often simply smile and say, “Just leave it for now; it will come to you later.” He encouraged them to ponder the issues [see photo] and allow God to reveal His truth to them.
This is a good time of the year to look back over our lives and ponder where we’ve been and seek God’s leading/guiding hand to move us forward into the new year ahead. Can we just image what it must’ve been like for the young virgin, Mary, as she nursed her Baby in that manger, with the shepherds coming to visit her (see highlight passages), pondering what had happened with an angel telling her that she had just delivered the Son of God, … The Messiah, … into this world?
Well, ... back to our reality, … and really, any time is a good time to ponder who we are and where our God has brought us, … but even more where we desire for Him to lead us in the future. That’s why you find me here … every day … praying the psalms of Psalms 63:1-4 and 139:23-24 … praising God for Whom He is and begging Him to lead me in His way as I do all I can to avoid taking my selfish roads in life (see Prov. 3:5-6).
So, … let’s stop today and ponder where are we are and where we desire for God to lead us into the new year … and really … for the rest of our lives.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for bringing us here and for promising to lead us to eternity to be with You.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all reading here can, and will, stop for at least a moment, and do as Steven Curtis Chapman sings, to be still and know that God is leading us. … 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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