Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube with song and lyrics from Zach Williams singing … Fear Is A Liar … poignantly singing of how God charges us to cast our fears in the fire of God’s love and strength.
Martin Niemöller
==============Highlight Verse[s]: Deuteronomy 31:8 [NLT] … 8 “ … Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
… God’s promise thru Moses to Joshua that the Lord will always be with the faithful.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Deuteronomy 31:1-8 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Moses recognizing that he will soon die and will not be able to lead God’s people into the promised land charges them - with Joshua’s leadership - to go forth and be courageous.
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Reference Passage : … Joshua 1:5 [NLT] … 5 No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.
… Joshua had no reason to fear his charge to lead the people.
Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5,6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… As disciples of Christ we need to trust God COMPLETELY to lead us and avoid leaning on our own fears and perceptions.
Reference Passage : … Romans 8:31b [NLT] … 31b … If God is for us, who can ever be against us?
… Why would we ever be anxious with this promise from God.
Reference Passage : … 2Timothy 1:7 [NLT] … 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
… God’s promise to Timothy (and to us) thru Paul.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Winn Collier, uses a reference to the courage of a German Pastor during WW2 to illustrate the kind of courage we, as Christians, should have ALWAYS. The ODB author wrote … While most German church leaders gave in to Hitler, theologian and pastor Martin Niemöller was among the brave souls who resisted Nazi evil. I read a story describing how in the 1970s a group of older Germans stood outside a large hotel while what appeared to be a younger man bustled about with the group’s luggage. Someone asked who the group was. “German pastors,” came the answer. “And the younger man?” “That’s Martin Niemöller—he’s eighty [see photo]. But he has stayed young because he is unafraid.”
Niemöller wasn’t able to resist fear because he possessed some superhuman antifear gene, but because of God’s grace. In fact, he had once held anti-Semitic views. But he had repented and God restored him and helped him speak and live out the truth.
During WW2, Martin Niemöller was able to stand firm in his Christian faith, resisting the Nazi tyranny, because of his trust in the truths of God’s word (see ODB entry above). And so should we, as disciples of Christ, knowing and standing on the truths of God’s word [see above].
God promises us, as He did for Moses and Joshua (see highlight passages) that He will never leave us, nor forsake us. He charges us to avoid seeing the world thru our human perspective and realize that we can ALWAYS rely on our Lord to stand in the gap for us (see Prov 3:5-6 and Rom 8:31). So, … let us lean on the truth which Paul related to Timothy (see ), … knowing that any fears we feel are lies from Satan, as sung in the linked song, and that we can ALWAYS rely on the truth that God only has His love and strength for us.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for Your promise to give us Your strength to cover our weaknesses.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all reading here can, and will, join me and to do cast our fears aside, recognizing that those feelings are lies from Satan. … 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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