Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of song and lyrics from an anonymous worship group singing an old hymn … Count Your Blessings … singing in worship what we all should be able to do ALWAYS!
The closed fist of greed
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Highlight Verse[s]: Ecclesiastes 4:6 [NKJV] ... 6 … , “Better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind.”
… Solomon admonishes believers to hold on to God’s blessings rather than chasing selfish desires.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Ecclesiastes 4:4-8 [NLT] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… God, thru Solomon, reveals what our attitude toward God’s providence should be.
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Reference Passage : … Ecclesiastes 5:10 [NLT] … 10 Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!
… More advice from Solomon about the fruitlessness of pursuing wealth rather than an abiding relationship with the Lord.
Reference Passage : … Matthew 6:24 [NLT] … 24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.
… Jesus states clearly that we cannot serve two masters … God AND money!
Reference Passage : … Luke 12:15 [NLT] … 15 Then He said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”
… Jesus states clearly what should be a Christian’s attitude toward greed.
Reference Passage : … Hebrews 13:5 [NLT] … 5 Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have, For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”
… God gives us the proper perspective on life in showing us to avoid loving money because of His faithfulness.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Remi Oyedele, uses an old fable to illustrate what our attitude toward God’s providence should be. … The ODB author wrote: In the ancient fable The Boy and the Filberts (Nuts), a boy sticks his hand into a jar of nuts and grabs a great fistful. But his hand is so full that it gets stuck in the jar. [see photo] Unwilling to lose even a little of his bounty, the boy begins to weep. Eventually, he’s counseled to let go of some of the nuts so the jar will let go of his hand. Greed can be a hard boss.
On this day before Thanksgiving Day here in the USA, today’s ODB entry and the Scriptures above to support the need for all of us to “count our blessings,” as the linked hymn sings, … to hold onto an attitude of thankfulness and avoid the very human tendency to pursue wealth with an attitude of greediness.
Jesus was about as clear on that issue as God could be, wasn’t He (see Matt. 6:24 and Luke 12:15), … certainly supporting what Solomon wrote to believers in the OT scriptures from Ecclesiastes [see above]?
So, as we celebrate THANKSGIVING DAY tomorrow, what attitude will we have in our hearts; and will we be able to open our fists in the jar of life [again, see photo] and be thankful for what God has provided for us?
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, ... for giving us all we need.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me today, to try to do what I do everyday, and follow God’s “GPS,” i.e., His word, … to start the day out on the right path.
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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