Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube of images and lyrics at Christmas time with Carrie Underwood and Michael W Smith singing … All Is Well … poignantly singing of how we are never alone at Christmas because we have Emmanuel, … God with us!
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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 25:15 [NLT] … 15 My eyes are always on the Lord, for He rescues me from the traps of my enemies.
… David, as a shepherd boy, may have been lonely; but He was never alone.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Psalms 25:14-22 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… David, out tending his sheep was never alone, as he sings in this song of trust in the faithful presence of His God.
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Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 … USE THIS LINK [NLT] …
… Christians never need to feel alone, because Emmanuel is always there to lead us if we but trust in Him to do so.
Reference Passage : … Matthew 29:20b … [NLT] … 20 … And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
… Jesus’ promise to be with us ALWAYS.
Reference Passage : … Hebrews 13:5-6 … USE THIS LINK [NLT] …
… Our God promises to ALWAYS be with us, no matter where we are or how lonely we may feel.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Lawrence Darmani, uses a personal remembrance to illustrate that we are never alone when we have an abiding relationship with Christ. The ODB author writes … The loneliest Christmas I ever spent was in my grandfather’s cottage near Sakogu, northern Ghana [see photo]. I was just fifteen, and my parents and siblings were a thousand kilometers away.
In previous years, when I’d been with them and my village friends, Christmas was always big and memorable. But this Christmas was quiet and lonely. And as I lay on my floor mat early Christmas morning, I remembered a local song: “The year has ended; Christmas has come; the Son of God is born; peace and joy to everybody.” Mournfully, I sang it over and over.
My grandmother came and asked, “What song is that?” My grandparents didn’t know about Christmas — or about Christ. So I shared what I knew about Christmas with them. Those moments brightened my loneliness.
Young David had a song as well to quell his loneliness as a shepherd boy, and Psalm 25 (see above) was a song he wrote and sung to help remind himself of the presence and protection of His God … no matter how lonely he may feel out in those fields with his sheep.
As today’s ODB entry reminds us, Christmas can be a time of year where some feel so very lonely; but as the ODB author depicted, we can join with Carrie Underwood and Michael W Smith in singing “All Is Well” at Christians, knowing, as the Scriptures declare truthfully, that our God is always with us. He is Emmanuel; and we can sing and know of His presence and protection no matter how lonely we might feel at Christmas.
It’s Jesus’ promise to be with us ALWAYS (see Matthew 29:20). So, share in the reality of God’s presence in this special Advent season; and let’s all declare our praises and Alleluia’s together.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … again I say … thank You, Lord, … for ALWAYS being there to lift me up when I’m down.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all reading here sing with today’s linked song, … “All is well!!” … 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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