Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube version with images and lyrics from Laura Story singing her song, … Blessings … poignantly singing of how we, as fellow Christians, need to hold on to the truth that God’’s grace is always there to meet our needs, … not necessary our wants; and that our blessings are often disguised by the realities of life.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Jonah 4:3-4 [NLT] … 3 Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.” … 4 The Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”
… Aren’t we glad that God answers our prayers for what we need, not necessarily what we want.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Jonah, Chapter 4 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jonah was so angry with God’s merciful treatment of the people of Nineveh that he prayed to die.
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Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… We must avoid letting pride or our human desires cloud our attitude about God, Who is always good to/for us.
Reference Passage : … Romans 8:28 [NLT] … 28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
… God ALWAYS provides us with what we need.
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 will ALWAYS take care of what we need, … not necessarily what we want.
Reference Passage : … Colossians 3:17 [NLT] … 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
… No matter what we’re doing or wherever we are, we need to be giving thanks to God for giving us what we need.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, James Banks, uses a personal story about a friend who let his selfish perspective get in the way of his prayer life. The ODB author writes … When my friend David’s wife developed Alzheimer’s disease, the changes it brought to his life made him bitter. He needed to retire early to care for her; and as the disease progressed, she required increasingly more care.
“I was so angry at God,” he told me. “But the more I prayed about it, the more He showed me my heart and how I had been selfish for most of our marriage.” Tears welled in his eyes as he confessed, “She’s been sick ten years, but God has helped me see things differently. Now, everything I do out of love for her, I also do for Jesus. Caring for her has become the greatest privilege of my life.”
Aren’t you glad when we pray that God ALWAYS hears; but He certainly doesn’t grant our every desire, does He? And in this ODB example, the author’s friend, David, let his pride and selfishness cloud his prayer life with sin and bitterness, … God providing David with what he needed, … not what he wanted.
That was the case for Jonah as well in the highlight passage, where Jonah actually prayed to die; but God provided what Jonah needed, not what he wanted [see photo]. And we can hold on to the truths above in the reference passages .. as well as what Laura Story sings in the linked song.
Quite often we have trouble seeing what we need by letting our selfish desires cloud our attitude and our prayer life. And I’ve learned to throw up a red flag of warning when my desires are asking the “WHY GOD?” question, realizing that I need to asking “WHAT GOD?” instead; … and waiting on God to show me what I need rather than just giving me what I want.
So, if any of my readers today are feeling and asking “WHY GOD” now, I pray we can recognize that this is FEAR guiding our prayers rather than FAITH. And we know who is the author of fear, don’t we? And it’s certainly not God!!
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for ALWAYS leading us to what we need.
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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 thank God for providing our needs today, even as we pray for our desires. … 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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