Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from Steven Curtis Chapman singing His Strength Is Perfect ... poignantly singing of how God can - and will - carry us with His strength when we are weak in carrying out various tasks in life.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Philippians 4:13 [NKJV] ... 13 I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me..
... We Christians get our strength to endure from our relationship with Christ and from His sustaining grace.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Philippians 4:10-13 [NKJV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… God, thru Paul, exhorts Christians to grow to learn how to be content in all situations of life.
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Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NKJV] ... USE THIS LINK …
.. God, thru Solomon, shows believers how to trust and follow our Lord’s lead.
Reference Passage : … Isaiah 26:3 [NKJV] ... 3 You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.
... God teaches, thru Isaiah, that we will only find and hold onto real peace by focusing on and following the Lord obediently.
Reference Passage : … Luke 9:23 [NKJV] ... 23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. …”
... Jesus, quoted by Luke, shows us, as His disciples, that we must deny ourselves in the challenges of life to follow Him.
Reference Passage : … John 16:33 [NKJV] ... 33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
... Jesus shows His disciples that we an only come to overcome the world’s challenges in our relationship with Him since HE has overcome the world.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, James Banks, uses a story of a young man trying, in weakness, to overcome a difficult challenge to illustrate how we, as Christians, must often rely on God’s strength to cover our weakness. … The ODB author wrote: “You’re going to be an exchange student!” I was seventeen and thrilled to hear I was approved to study in Germany. But it was only three months before my departure, and I had never taken a class in German. …
Months later I was in a classroom in Germany, discouraged because I didn’t know more of the language. That day a teacher gave me wise advice. “Learning a language is like climbing a sand dune. [See photo] Sometimes you feel like you’re not getting anywhere. But just keep going and you will.”
Every been there, my fellow Christian? … Oh. … maybe not the same situation as the young man in the ODB story; but perhaps feeling like the weakened climber in the attached photo, … trudging up a sand dune of challenge, and trying to overcome our weaknesses to catch up with others up ahead. I don’t know about other readers here; but I’ve certainly “been there, done that.”
But with the help of a mentor and other stronger, more mature, Christians, I’ve learned God’s willingness - and grace - to give me the strength - HIS strength - to become an overcomer in the challenges of life, … primarily focusing on and following HIM (see reference scriptures); and, as the linked song tells us, letting Him give us the strength provided by His enabling grace to climb whatever sand dune we’re asked to climb in life.
And I pray today that we’re doing just that, … especially if we’re facing a really steep sand dune up ahead of us.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, ... for providing us with Your empowering grace when we need it.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me to rely on God’s enabling grace to climb that sand dune up ahead today or tomorrow. … 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.</ span>
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