Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube version with images and lyrics from Brian Doerksen singing … Creation Calls … poignantly singing of how we, as Christians, must quiet ourselves at times and take in the wonders God has created for His glory and our enjoyment. … AND ON TO THIS LINK to hear the group Anointed singing God Is All Around Us quietly declaring that God is always there even when we have trouble seeing Him in our lives.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 104:24 [NLT] … 24 O Lord, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures.
… We need to stand down from the hustle/bustle of life at times and quietly take in the awe of Creation.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Psalm 104:10-24 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru a Psalmist helps us remember God’s awesome creation.
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Reference Passage : … Psalm 19:1-2 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… When we can stop for a moment in the hustle/bustle of life and take in God’s creation we can see His presence is ever with us.
Reference Passage : … Matthew 11:28 [NLT] … 28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
… Jesus has invited us to come to Him for rest when we need it.
Reference Passage : … 2Corinthians 10;5 [NLT] … 5 We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.
… God, thru Paul, reminds us to take all our distracting thoughts captive to be able to take in God’s truth and obey him.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Kirsten Holmberg, uses a personal reflection of taking in God’s creation to help her (and us) take our thoughts captive and see our God more clearly. The ODB author writes … My life often feels frenzied and hectic. I hurry from one appointment to the next, returning phone calls and checking items off my seemingly infinite to-do list while on my way. Out of sheer exhaustion one Sunday, I collapsed into the hammock in our backyard. [see photo] My phone was inside, as were my children and husband. At first I planned to sit for just a moment or two, but in the undistracted stillness, I began to notice things that invited me to linger longer. …
I found myself moved to tears in response to all God had made.
Sometimes, in the hustle/bustle of life, like the ODB author, we need to get alone in the quietness of God’s creation, as Brian Doerksen and the group Anointed sing in the linked songs, to take in God’s glory all around us and as the Psalmists wrote in Psalms 19 and 104 (see above). Because when we do, we’re doing what Jesus commanded his disciples to do (in Matthew 11:28) and what Paul wrote in 2Cor. 10:5, taking captive our thought life and resting in the grace and glory of our Lord’s creation.
Maybe not in a hammock, … but to some degree that’s what I’m doing each morning when I get alone with God and let the cares of my life be overshadowed by prayerful reflection of my Lord in the quiet of the moment, as I rest in the truth of His word. I feel his presence, even right now, … much like the ODB author in her hammock; and I realize that He’s with me … no matter what I’m going thru.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for helping me start each day with You.
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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 stop and rest for a few moments in the realization of His creation and His glory. … 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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