Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in YouTube song and lyrics from Jesse Manibusan singing … Open My Eyes … poignantly singing of how we, as Christians, must seek to open our eyes, ears, and heart to the ways of the Lord in order to follow Him.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Jeremiah 5:21 [NLT] … 21 Listen, you foolish and senseless people, with eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear.
… God’s people are charged to see/hear the ways of the Lord and to follow Him.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Jeremiah 5:18-23 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Jeremiah warns His people to open their eyes and ears to the ways of the Lord.
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Reference Passage : … Psalms 63:1-4 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… My prayer everyday to do all I can to seek the ways of my Lord and to follow Him.
Reference Passage : … Psalms 116-1-2 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… We should all know that God will bend down to hear when we pray to Him with a humble, seeking heart.
Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… As disciples of the Lord, we are charged to see, hear, and find His ways and follow Him.
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’ simple, but difficult, charge to any who would be His disciples.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, John Blase, uses a story about an actress learning how to play a role to illustrate how we, as Christians, must learn to do all we can to listen to and follow Christ’s ways. The ODB author writes … Actress Diane Kruger was offered a role that would make her a household name. But it required her to play a young wife and mother experiencing the loss of her husband and child, and she had never personally suffered loss to such a degree. She didn’t know if she could be believable. But she accepted, and in order to prepare, she began attending support meetings for people walking through the valley of extreme grief.
Initially she offered suggestions and thoughts when those in the group shared their stories. She, like most of us, wanted to be helpful. But gradually she stopped talking, and simply started listening. It was only then she began truly learning to walk a mile in their shoes. And her realization came by using her ears.
I’ve heard it said that we have two ears and one mouth for a reason; and we should listen at least twice as much as we speak. Good advice, wouldn’t you say?
In today’s techno-world (see photo), we have headphones when we desire to hear something like music or someone on the radio, … headphones which to a great degree cancel out the noise around us and let us hear what we desire to hear more clearly. And that, in a modern word-picture, is what God was trying to say to His people thru the Prophet Jeremiah (in the highlight passage). The Israelites had let the din and noise of the world misdirect them as they were to follow the Lord; and He commanded them to hear HIM and follow HIS ways.
And that’s what Jesus desired of His disciples as well [see Luke 9:23}. And so, that’s why you find me coming here to start each day, … where I try to shut out the noise of the world in my quiet place and to begin my day, doing all I can in my “quiet-time” in prayer and my study of God’s word to put on noise cancelling “earphones,” … and praying the prayer of Psalm 63:1-4, which I pray word-for-word every morning, … again, doing all I can to shut out the noise of the world and ignoring my sinful heart, to seek to hear my God and follow only His ways thru His word [see Prov. 3:5-6].
And I pray that for all of us here today.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for bending down to hear me when I come to You, praying to hear Your voice.
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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 pray we can shut out the din of the world and do all we can to hear You. … 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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