Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube image and lyrics from a soloist from the Maranatha Singers singing the worship refrain … I Love You, Lord … poignantly singing of how we prayerfully live lives of worship, surrender, and obedience to God’s word and commands, making us a sweet sound in God’s ears.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Ephesians 3:16, …18 [NLT] … 16 I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. … 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is.
… Paul’s prayer for us to grasp the breadth of God’s love for us.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Ephesians 3:16-21 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul’s prayer that Christians (that’s us too!) would realize just how wide, high, deep, and long was (and is) God’s love for those who love and obey Him.
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Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… The way we show our love for our God is to trust Him enough to follow Him.
Reference Passage : … John 14:21 [NLT] … 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love Me. And because they love Me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal Myself to each of them.”
… Jesus’s complete/perfect love is always available to those who show their (our) love for Him by our obedience to His word.
Reference Passage : … Romans 8:38-39 [NLT] … … USE THIS LINK …
… God thru Paul give us the Lord’s promise that NOTHING can separate us from His love.
Reference Passage : … Philippians 4:19 [NLT] … 19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
… God’s promise to provide Christians with all we need in this life.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Elisa Morgan, uses a personal medical illustration to help show us the extent of God’s love for us. The ODB author writes … I lay still on the vinyl-covered mat and held my breath on command as the machine whirred and clicked. I knew lots of folks had endured MRIs, but for claustrophobic me, the experience required focused concentration on something—Someone—much bigger than myself.
In my mind, a phrase from Scripture—“how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:18)—moved in rhythm with the machine’s hum. In Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church, he described four dimensions to God’s love in order to stress the unending parameters of His love and presence.
Oh how Paul desired, when he prayed in Eph. 3, that fellow Christians could grasp the extent of God’s love for those who come to the Lord in faithful repentance to obediently follow His word (see John 14:21). Because, … as Paul also wrote in Rom 8:38-39, nothing … NO THING, … earthly or otherwise, can separate a true and repentant believer from God’s love.
And oh how I pray all those reading here grasp that truth and are doing all we can to obediently follow our Lord thru His word [see Jesus’ command in John 14:21]. Because if we are, His promise is that He will manifest Himself in us thru His Spirit and give us everything we need (see Phil. 4:19) in this life to follow Him (look up Luke 9:23 on your own).
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for Your perfect and infinite love and provision.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all reading here can, and will, join me to follow our Lord obediently and receive all the love and provision He promises. … 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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