Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in YouTube images and lyrics from Alan Jackson singing the old hymn … Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus … poignantly singing of how we must take our eyes off of ourselves and put them on Jesus.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalms 121:1-2 [NLT] … 1 I look up to the mountains — does my help come from there? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth!
… Where are we focused in life?
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Highlight Passage [context]: Psalm 121:1-8 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… A song of where we should focus in life as we traverse the challenges of daily living.
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Reference Passage : …Psalm 139:23-24 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… A song, praying where our focus in life should be to let God lead us from a focus on self to one which lets Him lead us.
Reference Passage : …Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… If we take our focus off of self and onto our Savior, He will lead us in His ways.
Reference Passage : … Luke 9:23 [NLT] … 23 Then He said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be My follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow Me. …”
… Jesus is clear what it takes to be His disciple … to take our eyes off of ourselves and do all we can to follow Him.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Adam Holz, uses an interesting word picture of how we as Christians should focus on Christ as we traverse the difficult roads of life. The ODB author writes … What determines our direction in life? I once heard an answer to that question in a surprising place: a motorcycle training course. Some friends and I wanted to ride, so we took a class to learn how. Part of our training dealt with something called “target fixation.”
“Eventually,” our instructor said, “you’re going to face an unexpected obstacle. If you stare at it—if you target fixate—you’ll steer right into it. But if you look above and past it to where you need to go, you can usually avoid it.” Then he added, “Where you’re looking is the direction you’re going to go.” [see photo]
That simple-but-profound principle applies to our spiritual lives too. When we “target fixate”— focusing on our problems or struggles — we almost automatically orient our lives around them.
Really I don’t think I need to add any clarity to the ODB entry as well as the message of the linked song, do I? The message is clear for us to take our eyes (i.e., our focus) off of our selves, especially on the troublesome circumstances which confront us; and we need to fix our focus on the road ahead (see photo) where God is leading us.
That’s why the reference Scriptures above mean so much to me and become the focus of my prayers so often, especially Psalm 139:23-24, where I’m seeking God’s way in life rather than my own (see also Prov. 3:5-6).
So, where’re we going today, dear one?
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for Your willingness and grace to lead us in THE WAY, … Your way …, everlasting.
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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 take our focus off of self and as Alan Jackson sings, onto the Savior. … 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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