Berry Patch Devotions in 2021 - Day 19
Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a song and lyrics from Chris Tomlin with Lucre singing … Awake My Soul … poignantly singing of how we must pray to be vigilant in following and serving our Lord.
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Highlight Passage: … Matthew 26:41 [NLT] …
41 Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”
… Jesus, commands Peter and two other disciples in the Garden to keep watch and pray and to not give in to temptation, recognizing that our spirit is weak.
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Highlight Passage [Context]: … Matthew 26:36-46 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus commands His inner three disciples to watch and pray while He went into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray.
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Reference Passage: … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s promise to lead us … IF/WHEN … we are willing to trust and follow Him.
Reference Passage: … Lamentations 3:22-23 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s promise, thru Jeremiah, that His mercies are never ending.
Reference Passage: … Matthew 28:20b [NLT] …
20 … And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
… Jesus’ promise, as He arose into heaven after the resurrection, to ALWAYS be with His faithful disciples.
Reference Passage: … John 16:33 [NLT] …
33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
… Jesus promises His disciples - and us too - that He would be there for them (and us!) no matter what we will face in this world.
My Devotional Journal: Today's Our Daily Bread author, Marvin Williams, AT THIS LINK … relays a story of a German bank employee who dozed off while making a small bank deposit and accidentally transferred over 222 million Euros (300+ million dollars) into the wrong account. Big time OOPS, … created by someone falling asleep while on the job, … creating all kinds of havoc.
And that happened to Jesus’ disciple over and over again while they were following Jesus in His ministry, didn’t it? And as Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane praying, He had commanded three of his strongest disciples, … Peter, James, and John, … to watch and pray as He, Jesus, went into the Garden to pray. But what happened; … not once, but thrice? … The three fell asleep; and then the colossal failure as almost all of Jesus’ disciples bolted and ran when Jesus was arrested the night before His crucifixion.
I’m writing here under conviction, because I don’t really watch and pray with conviction enough. Too often, as now, I find myself being chided by God’s Spirit - really Jesus Himself - saying … TO ME … “Watch and Pray;" … and I don’t!! … And now, I take in the linked song; and I’m praying that God’s Spirit does a WAKE UP call on my spirit and has me realizing God’s merciful willingness to give me His power as I trust in God’s word (see Scriptures above) to be able to WAKE UP and use His strength when mine is weak.
My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh, Abba Father, thank You, King Jesus, … for Your mercy and promise to give me Your strength when I fall asleep on this job of life.
My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray that all reading here will join me, … to seek Your mercy and strength, Lord, when we doze off on life. … 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.
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