Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in images, song and lyrics from Joy Williams singing Do They See Jesus in Me … poignantly singing of how we, as Christians, get to choose whether others see our base nature or that of Jesus, … Whose Spirit can show out in the way we choose to live our lives.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Luke 22:41-42 [ESV] ... 41 And He withdrew from them [two of the Disciples] about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
… Jesus, the God-Man, chose to yield to the will of His heavenly Father’s plan of salvation as He prayed in the Garden the night before His crucifixion.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Luke 22:39-44 [ESV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… Jesus’ dual nature as the “God-Man” showed itself in His prayer battle in the Garden of Gethsemane.
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Reference Passage : … Romans, Chapter 7&8 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul shows fellow Christians that he too battles the old sin nature in Romans 7; but shows clearly that as born-again Christians we can choose to live as Romans 8 describes, free from our bondage to sin and showing the world that nothing separates us from God’s love.
Reference Passage : … 2 Corinthians 5:17 [ESV] … 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
… In Christ we get to choose which side is seen by others, the old nature or the new.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Elisa Morgan, used a common word picture to show that we have a dual nature as Christians, where we get to choose which side shows itself. … The ODB author wrote: Every coin has two sides. [see photo] The front is called “heads” and, from early Roman times, usually depicts a country’s head of state. The back is called “tails,” a term possibly originating from the British ten pence depicting the raised tail of a heraldic lion.
Like a coin, Christ’s prayer in the garden of Gethsemane possesses two sides. In the deepest hours of His life, on the night before He died on a cross, Jesus prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). When Christ says, “take this cup,” that’s the raw honesty of prayer. He reveals His personal desire, “This is what I want.”
We’re in a battle with our two-sided nature every day as Christians, aren’t we? The Apostle Paul wrote about that battle in two chapters of His letter to the Romans (please take the time to meditate on Romans 7 & 8).
But as born again Christians, we have been sealed with a new nature (see 2Cor. 5:17); and we get to choose … yes, even TODAY … whether we want to live as “Romans 7” or “Romans 8” Christians.
Jesus had that choice in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prayed the night before His death on the cross (see Luke 22), … and we know what His choice was. What will be our choice today; and will that choice allow others to see Christ in us as Joy Williams sings in the linked song? … We get to choose!
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for allowing me to choose whom I will follow today and where I will walk.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me to choose to live in Romans 8 rather than in Romans 7 … so that others will see Jesus living in us. … Let’s not be April fools today!! 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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