Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in YouTube song and lyrics from Zach Williams singing his song … Chain Breaker … powerfully singing of how we, as Christians, can bring all our cares to the greatest mood mender of all, … our Lord, King Jesus!
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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 94:19 [NLT] … 19 When doubts filled my mind, Your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.
… The psalmist sung about our God being our mood mender when we’re down.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Psalm 94 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… The psalmist chooses to let his faith in God prevail over his downer mood.
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Reference Passage : … Isaiah 26:3, … 41:10 [NLT] … 3 You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on You!…
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.
… Our God will lift us up when we’re down if we trust in Him and bring our cares to Him.
Reference Passage : … Habakkuk 1:2-3 … 3:17-18 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Habakkuk takes his questions/concerns to God (see Chapt. 1); and God belays his fears and even allows the Prophet to find joy in the midst of calamity (see Chapt. 3).
Reference Passage : … Hebrews 13:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, in this passages, promises He will never leave us or forsake us when we’re down or depressed. But do we trust Him?
Reference Passage : … 1Peter 5:7 [NLT] … 7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.
… Peter exhorts us to bring our cares to God.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Linda Washington, uses a personal memory to illustrate how we can allow God’s care to override a bad mood when we’re overcome with negative thoughts. The ODB author writes … As I waited at the train station for my weekly commute, negative thoughts crowded my mind like commuters lining up to board a train [see photo] — stress over debt, unkind remarks said to me, helplessness in the face of a recent injustice done to a family member. By the time the train arrived, I was in a terrible mood.
On the train, another thought came to mind: write a note to God, giving Him my lament. Soon after I finished pouring out my complaints in my journal, I pulled out my phone and listened to the praise songs in my library. Before I knew it, my bad mood had completely changed.
It is not uncommon for me to wake up with concerns or cares that drag me down. Can I get a witness?
But, it is also often the case that when I take my cares to God in my quiet times; and I go thru the discipline of going thru God’s word in my ODB entry, and journaling my thoughts as today, my realization that my God cares lifts me up. (see the Isaiah passages).
As did Habakkuk in a really bad downer moment (see Habakkuk passages), when I surrender my cares to God (see also Peter’s exhortation), I recognize that my God will never forsake me (yes, Hebrews 13:5); and He becomes, as the ODB entry is titled today, my “Mood Mender;” … and as Zach Williams sings, … my “Chain Breaker.”
And I share here with any readers that journaling your cares, as did the writers of the Scriptures above, is one of the strongest “mood menders” of all. Try it and see if God’s prescription for anxiety doesn’t work to lift you up when you’re down.
Dear ones, … it’s not Bill Berry’s promise, … it’s God’s!!!
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for being my mood mender, … my chain breaker!
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all reading here can, and will, join me today to be thankful to be able to go to a God who is ALWAYS there to lift us up. … 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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