Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from the Laura Story singing her song Blessings ... poignantly singing of how God sometimes disguises the sweetness of His blessings in the trials and challenges of life.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Ezekiel 3:3 [NKJV] ... 3 And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.
… When Ezekiel consumed God’s word, the scroll tasted like honey to him, tho it was words of rebuke for God’s people.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Ezekiel 2:4-3:3 [NKJV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… God commands Ezekiel to take in God’s word and deliver it to God’s people.
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Reference Passage : … Psalm 19:8-11 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s word is pure, like much goal, and should taste sweeter than the sweetest honey.
Reference Passage : … Psalm 119:102-104 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… The Psalmist saw God’s word as sweeter than honey, helping him to avoid the bitterness of life.
Reference Passage : … Romans 8:28 [NKJV] … 28 And we know that ALL THINGS work together for good to those who love God, … to those who are the called according to His purpose.
… If we believe in God’s truth, as above, even the bitter pills of life, which seem bitter on the outside, will be like the sweetness of honey in reality for those who believe in God’s love and grace.
Reference Passage : … 2Corinthians 12:9 [NKJV] … 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
… When things were very bitter in Paul’s life, he remembered Jesus’ promise to give him the strength - i.e., the sweetness) to deal with the bitterness.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Kirsten Holmberg, uses a personal story to illustrate how life can be bitter at times. … The ODB author wrote: I’d had the spot on my nose for the better part of a year when I went to the doctor. The biopsy results came back days later with words I didn’t want to hear: skin cancer. Though the cancer was operable and not life-threatening, it was a bitter pill to swallow.
Yes, life can present some “bitter pills” to take in sometimes, … as in the ODB story, the author hearing that she had the “C-word.” Yes, … the truth can taste like that, can’t it?
But, unlike the taste of life at times, God’s truth never is bitter. And as we read from Ezekiel’s experience (see highlight passage) and the Psalmist’s taste of truth (see Ps. 119:103), God’s word always has us taste the sweetness of God’s love and grace thru the provision of His truth.
So, when we take in bitterness from a taste of life, we need to be taking in - and believing - the reality and truth in passages like those from Paul in Romans 8:28 and 2Cor. 12:9, giving him (and us) the sweetness of God’s blessings from His word, … which, as Laura Story sings in the linked song, may be like the sweetness of God’s blessings in disguise.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, ... for giving us the sweetness of love and grace from Your word to take in the bitter pills of life.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me to take in some of God’s sweetness which He doles out to us thru His word. … 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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