Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from the group Hillsong United singing … Jesus, You’re All I Need … poignantly singing of how we, as Christians, fill ourselves with Christ to avoid being vulnerable to our selfish desires.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Proverbs 27:7 [NLT] … 7 A person who is full refuses honey, but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry.
… Conclusion: Keep ourselves filled with Jesus and He will satisfy our selfish desires.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Proverbs 27:1-10 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Solomon lays out many truths to help us avoid our sin nature.
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Reference Passage : … Psalm 119:9-11 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… If we fill our hearts with Godliness, from His word, being full of Christlikeness, our selfish nature will be satisfied and we will desire selfish/worldly things less.
Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… If we trust only God’s truth and follow His ways, He will always lead us in the path of righteousness.
Reference Passage : … Philippians 4:8, 19 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… If we fill our hearts and minds with Godly thoughts, especially from His truth, we will realize His promise to provide us with all we need in Christ.
Reference Passage : … Luke 9:23 [NLT] … 23 Then He said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me …
… All Jesus wants us to do is follow Him; and He will show us THE way … HIS way.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Jennifer Benson Schuldt, uses a personal story to illustrate God’s prescription for avoiding selfishness and sin in our lives. And the ODB author wrote: My children were thrilled, but I felt uneasy. During a vacation, we visited an aquarium where people could pet small sharks kept in a special tank. [See photo] When I asked the attendant if the creatures ever snapped at fingers, she explained that the sharks had recently been fed and then given extra food. They wouldn’t bite because they weren’t hungry.
… Hunger—that sense of inner emptiness—can weaken our discernment as we make decisions. It convinces us that it’s okay to settle for anything that fills us up, even if it causes us to take a bite out of someone.
That ODB story well illustrates what God’s word has given us to help us selfish/hungry sinners [and that’s all of us, isn’t it?) avoid being vulnerable to our fleshly desires. And those prescriptive truths are found in the Scriptures above. And the group Hillsong sings about them in the linked song as well.
The baby sharks in the aquarium (see photo) were not hungry and therefore would not try to eat the juicy fingers of the kids petting them because the sharks were well fed. And God’s word tells us that we selfish sinners will be far less desiring to feed our selfish desires if we fill our hearts/minds with the Godliness and Christlikeness found in God’s word. And that’s why you find me here, beginning each day by feeding myself on God’s truth from His word; because I know I’ll be far less likely to desire filling my sin nature if I’m filled up with God’s truth.
It’s God’s prescription to help me avoid my sinful nature; and I plan on taking in as much of my Lord as I can each morning from His word so that I will avoid desiring what Satan and the world want to feed me.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for Your filling me up with Your truth so that I can avoid the tempting things which cry out to fill my desires.
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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 fill our hearts and minds with our Lord’s truth so that we can avoid the temptations of this world and our flesh. … 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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