July 13, 2021 … A Heart of Worship …

Berry Patch Devotions in 2021</u> - Day 194 

Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...   Please take the time to take in song and lyrics from Michael W Smith singing  … A Heart of Worship … poignantly singing about how those who truly love the Lord are continually called to return to Him with a heart of worship. 

Returning to God with a heart of worship ... 

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Highlight Passage:   Nehemiah 1:9  [NLT] …  

9 But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.’   

… Nehemiah rehearses God’s promise to Moses to return His people to the Lord’s home in Jerusalem if they have repentant hearts of worship.     

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Highlight Passage [Context]: …  Nehemiah 1:5-11 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… Nehemiah feels God’s call on his heart to return and rebuild the walls in Jerusalem.       

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Reference Passage: … Psalm 63:1-3 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …  

… King David’s prayer of longing fo worship his God.   

Reference Passage: … Isaiah 26:9  [NLT] … 

9  In the night I search for you in the morning I earnestly seek you. For only when You come to judge the earth will people learn what is right. 

… A song of longing for al to return to God’s worship and His ways. 

Reference Passage: … John 4:13-14, 6:35 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… We all have desiring hearts which can only be filled by God’s promise, thru Jesus, of living waters and the bread of life.   

Reference Passage: … Revelation 21:6  [NLT] … 

6 And He also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. …  

… The ultimate fulfillment for those thirsty souls who sought after God’s life-giving waters.  

      

My Devotional Journal: Today's Our Daily Bread author, Tim Gustafson, AT THIS LINK  … relates a story of a couple who sold their home and moved; but their cat ran away twice to return to what the cat felt was his home.  

It’s been said, “Home is the where the heart is;” and that’s ultimately true about our heart’s longing to return to the home God desires to give us.  But we have to respond to His call to “come home” … like Nehemiah did responding to God’s call for him to come home and rebuild the walls in Jerusalem (see highlight passage). 

Do any of my fellow readers feel the Lord calling us to return to Him with the heart of worship sung by Michael W Smith in the linked song?  If so, I pray that we simply - but diligently - return to have our hearts filled with the love and grace God is willing to give to any who thirst after His life-giving waters (see John 4 and 6 above and Rev 21:6).  

My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh, Abba Father, thank You, King Jesus, … for providing me with Your living water in Your word to satisfy my thirst for Your truth.   

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray that all reading here will join me, … to return with thirsty hearts to drink from our God’s life-sustaining waters.    … Amen

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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.