Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video with song and lyrics from Steven Curtis Chapman singing … His Strength Is Perfect … poignantly singing of how God’s strength, when we walk in the Spirit, will give us His strength to cover our weaknesses.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Isaiah 40:31 [NLT] … 31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
… It is those whose trust holds in the strength of God’s grace who will finish the race well.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Isaiah 40:27-31 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Isaiah shows where we can get our strength when we grow weak or weary in life.
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Reference Passage : … Isaiah 41:10 [NLT] … 10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
… We need not be fearful in running the marathon we run in life; because God’s mighty right hand is there to lift us up when we get weak.
Reference Passage : … Matthew 11:28-30 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus invites those who trust in Him to find rest in Him.
Reference Passage : … 2Corinthians 12:9 [NLT] … 9 Each time He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.
… When Paul was weakened in the flesh, He learned to rely on God’s empowering grace to give him the strength to go on.
Reference Passage : … 2Timothy 4:7 [NLT] … 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.
… At the end of his life, the Apostle Paul, testifies to his finishing the race faithfully.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Arthur Jackson, used a personal story to illustrate how we can find strength from God’s empowering grace when we get weak in running the race of life. The ODB author wrote … At the age of fifty-four I entered the Milwaukee marathon with two goals—to finish the race and to do it under five hours. My time would have been amazing if the second 13.1 miles went as well as the first. But the race was grueling, and the second-wind strength I’d hoped for never came. By the time I made it to the finish line [see photo], my steady stride had morphed into a painful walk.
Footraces aren’t the only things that require second-wind strength—life’s race does too.
As I write this, this old runner, like Paul, writing to Timothy in 2Tim. 4, is in the last legs of the marathon we call life. I don’t know where my readers are in your race; but I do know that there are times when we all feel like we “hit the wall,” and our endurance to run the race we call life can wane. It is then when we find out just how much we trust in God’s promises (see highlight and reference passages) to help us finish the race.
And I pray, again like Paul, that we know - and trust - that God’s promises are true [see Isaiah 41:10 and 2Cor. 12:9] … that our God will, as Steven Curtis Chapman sings, give us His strength to go on when we feel weak.
And I need some of His empowering grace today. How about you?
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for Your uplifting strength when I get weak.
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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 lean on God’s grace to give us His strength when we get weak. 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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