Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and song from Sara Groves singing … Setting Up The Pins … poignantly singing of how we living our lives as Solomon described in Ecclesiastes 1, handling the repetitive, often boring, tasks of life. .
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Highlight Verse[s]: Ecclesiastes 1:9 [NLT] … 9 History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.
… Most certainly Solomon was (is) right in his observation about life being redundant; but it’s how we handle the redundancies of life which honors or dishonors our Lord.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Ecclesiastes 1:3-11 [NIV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Solomon, as God’s “Teacher,” paints a picture that life can be boringly repetitive; and we must choose to honor God with how we deal with the repetition [see Eccles. 12 below].
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Reference Passage : … Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 [NLT] … 13 That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. 14 God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.
… Solomon’s final conclusions about how we deal with life’s redundant challenges.
Reference Passage : … Romans 8:28 [NLT] … 28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.
… If we believe this we’ll do EVERYTHING for God’s glory and our own good, no matter how repetitive or seemingly worthless.
Reference Passage : … Philippians 2: 14 [NLT] … 14 Do EVERYTHING without complaining and arguing,
… God, thru Paul, exhorts us to do EVERYTHING without complaint.
Reference Passage : … 1 Timothy 4:4 [NLT] … 4 Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks.
… Anything and everything which comes our way, no matter how seemingly insignificant, should be received with an attitude of gratitude.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Lisa Samra, uses an example of seemingly repetitive tasks to help us see that we must handle them for God’s glory. And the ODB author wrote: I was intrigued when I noticed a tattoo of a bowling ball knocking down pins on my friend Erin’s ankle. Erin was inspired to get this unique tattoo after listening to Sara Groves’s song, “Setting Up the Pins.” The clever lyrics encourage listeners to find joy in the repetitive, routine tasks that sometimes feel as pointless as manually setting up bowling pins over and over again [see photo], only to have someone knock them down.
Laundry. Cooking. Mowing the lawn. Life seems full of tasks that, once completed, have to be done again—and again.
I’m almost 100% sure that all reading here have repetitive tasks in our lives which we do because somehow we know they are necessary for our good. The ODB entry enumerates some, … such as doing the laundry or mowing the lawn. I might add such disciplines as brushing our teeth daily or taking certain medicines/vitamins; … necessary, and often seemingly boring, tasks which are done as disciplines in life.
But what about such things as prayer or as you find me here DAILY digging into God’s word? Why do I do these things … EVERY DAY, … and journaling about them as I am right now? Well, if you’ve taken in the YouTube song by Sara Groves and meditated on the Scriptures provided by ODB and from my own study, God answers my inquiry, doesn’t He?
And I pray that we all see that life’s “bowling pins” (i.e., those necessary redundancies of life) as tasks we can - AND WILL - carry out for God’s glory and our own sanctification.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for giving us the boring, redundant, tasks of life to help us grow in Christlikeness and give You glory.
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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 see those boring, repetitive, tasks in life as opportunities to serve our Lord. … 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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