Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube with images and lyrics from Nichole Nordeman singing her song … Legacy … poignantly singing of how we, having been given the legacy of Christlikeness from others in our past must leave a similar legacy of witness and we do all we can to shine Christ’s light thru the way we live.
Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 30:2, … 11 [NLT] … 2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you restored my health. …
11 You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, ...
… David sings of God having turned his life from wailing to worship.
==============
Highlight Passage [context]: Psalm 30:1-12 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… King David thanks God in song, praising the Lord for having delivered His people as He had promised.
==============
Reference Passage : … Isaiah 61:2-3 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God promises to turn our ashes into beauty from our relationship with Messiah.
Reference Passage : … Lamentations 3:22-23 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… The “weeping Prophet, Jeremiah, declares, in the face of his anguish, the truth that God’s mercies are always there for those who love our faithful Lord.
Reference Passage : …Habakkuk 3:16-19 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… The Prophet sings of God’s promise to allow us to choose joy in the midst of our trials/tribulations.
Reference Passage : … 1 Corinthians 10:13 [NLT] … 13 The temptations [also translated “trials, troubles, or tribulations”] in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you can endure.
… Paul recognized that God will never allow His beloved to be put in temptations or trials where, with His grace, we cannot find the joy of our relationship with Him.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Xochitl Dixon, uses a personal remembrance to teach on how we can - and should - be able to dance with joy in the midst of our trials. The ODB author wrote … Kim began battling breast cancer in 2013. Four days after her treatment ended, doctors diagnosed her with a progressive lung disease and gave her three to five years to live. She grieved, sobbing prayers as she processed her emotions before God for the first year. By the time I met Kim in 2015, she had surrendered her situation to Him and radiated contagious joy and peace. Though some days are still hard, God continues to transform her heart-wrenching suffering into a beautiful testimony of hope-filled praise as she encourages others.
I’m sure others have seen people like Kim in the ODB entry today, … folks who just have found the way to find joy and radiate God’s love … even in the midst of trials … even life-threatening illness, as with young Kim. Perhaps you are one of those; … or maybe you’re one who’d like to find the joy which God has promised in His word (see Scriptures above).
The only way that I’ve been able to seek out - and find - God’s promised joy is to lock myself into the truth of His word and the promises which I know to be true there. And that is one reason why you find me here - EVERY morning - letting God’s love give me a hug of joy to start each day, … as I read passages like Lamentations 3:22-23 where God, thru Jeremiah, the weeping Prophet, reminds me that His mercies will be there for ME … just as they were - EVERY MORNING - for God’s chosen people.
And I pray we all realize the truth which Habakkuk discovered [see Hab. 3:16-19], allowing him to find joy even tho God had allowed terrible circumstances to visit God’s people. And I pray, with the Apostle Paul [in 1Cor. 10:13], who exhorted fellow Christians with the truth that God will never put us in any temptation or trial that we cannot handle with God’s faithfully provided grace.
And even if we’ve been wailing with anguish (as David sung in the highlight passage), I pray we begin singing the worship of our gratefulness for God’s mercy and grace, which are there for us today and will be tomorrow.
=============
My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for Your ever faithful enabling/empowering grace.
=============
My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all reading here can, and will, join me and to thank and praise God for showing us how to go from wailing to worship … from fear to faith … from tears to triumph … realizing and believing God’s promised mercy. … 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment