Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from Laura Story singing her song … Grace Abounds … poignantly singing of how God, thru Christ’s shed blood, has given His chosen ones - i.e., born-again Christians - the empowering grace to resist and choose to avoid our sin nature.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Romans 6:13 [NLT] … 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life.
… As Christians, we can now choose to rid ourselves of sin choices thru God’s empowering grace.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Romans 6:11-14 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Paul, exhorts Christians to live as Jesus intended for us to live, … i.e., by His Spirit giving us His saving/sanctifying grace to be able to resist our sinful/selfish nature.
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Reference Passage : … John 15:1-8 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
... If we CHOOSE to abide in Christ and surrender to His Spirit, we will live fruitful, Christlike, lives.
Reference Passage : … Romans 1:29-32 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Those who CHOOSE to relent to their sin nature, God will allow them to do so and become captive to their own desires.
Reference Passage : … Galatians 6:4 [NLT] … 4 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.
… As Christians, we don’t need to compare ourselves with others … only to Christ; and when we do, following Him, He gives us His power to resist envy and selfish strife.
Reference Passage : … Philippians 4:8 [NLT] … 8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
… Since we become what we think [see Prov. 23:7 - NKJV], as Christians, we must choose to think as God would desire for us to think.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Patricia Raybon, uses a reference to two famous artists to illustrate how envious thinking can distort the way we look at life. And the ODB author wrote: The famous French artist Edgar Degas is remembered worldwide for his paintings of ballerinas. Less known is the envy he expressed of his friend and artistic rival Édouard Manet, another master painter. Said Degas of Manet, “Everything he does he always hits off straightaway, while I take endless pains and never get it right.”
The sin of envy has always been pictured as the “green-eyed monster” (see photo). And that sin, along with yielding to pride, is what led the eye of Eve first, then Adam, to eat of the fruit of the flesh and be expelled from the Garden. However, as we read above, from God’s word, we, who’ve chosen to believe in the saving grace of Christ, need not relent to envy, … utilizing the abounding power of God’s sanctifying grace to think and act as Christ would lead us to act.
And I’m praying below that, meditating on the Scriptures above, all reading here will choose to think as Christ is leading us to think and make Christlike choices today, all of which give our God glory … as we move away from the fruit of the flesh and flourish in the fruit of the Spirit [on your own, meditate on Galatians 5:19-23).
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for Your empowering grace, allowing us to choose to live as Christ calls us to live.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all reading here can, and will, join me in CHOOSING to set aside envy and live as Christ leads us to live.
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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