Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video with song and lyrics from the group Phillips, Craig, and Dean singing their song … Let My Words Be Few … poignantly singing of how our words should reflect our love of our Lord, especially in critical moments of our lives.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Luke 23:34a [NLT] … 46 Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words He breathed His last.
… Jesus, dying on the cross, speaks last words.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Luke 23:32-46 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus’ famous last words.
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Reference Passage : … Psalm 19:14 [NLT] … 14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to You, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
… The prayer of my heart ever morning and my prayer anytime I’m teaching or speaking about my Lord in public.
Reference Passage : … Ephesians 4:29 [NLT] … 29 Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
… Our words are so important and powerful to those who hear them.
Reference Passage : … James 3:1-12 [NLT] … SEE THIS LINK …
… What we say is SO important! My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Tim Gustafson, used a remembrance of a critical moment in his life to illustrate the power/importance of our words, especially in critical moments. The ODB author wrote … The ambulance door was about to close—with me on the inside. [see photo] Outside, my son was on the phone to my wife. From my concussed fog, I called his name. As he recalls the moment, I slowly said, “Tell your mom I love her very much.”
Apparently I thought this might be goodbye, and I wanted those to be my parting words. In the moment, that’s what mattered most to me.
As expressed in this ODB story, words can be so very powerful and important, especially when they are spoken in critical moments. The words of Jesus from the cross, those famous, final, “red letter” words He spoke as His life ebbed (see highlight passage), are so very few; but Jesus knew, being the Living Word, that these words, as He was dying, were to be some of His most powerful and oft quoted in Scripture.
And our words, especially in critical moments, like the ones the ODB author spoke from the ambulance, should always try to reflect who we are in Christ (see Eph. 4:29 and James 3:1-12).
And that’s why every morning I start each day by praying … ALOUD, … the words of Psalm 19:14. And I especially do so just before I speak or teach in public, desiring to do what is sung in the linked song … to let my words be few but reflect who I am in Christ.
If today were to be your “famous last words,” what would they be?
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for Your famous last words.
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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 speak Your love and grace into the lives of those I might speak to today. 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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