March 29, 2022 … Our Weakness - His Strength

Berry Patch Devotions in 2021 - Day 88 

Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...    Please take the time to take in song and lyrics from the group Vertical Worship singing … Strength of My Life … poignantly singing of how, in our times of weakness we can look to relying God’s empowering grace to give us His strength. 

==============

Highlight Passage [Context]: … 2Corinthians 4:17-18 [NLT] … 

17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.  

… Paul points fellow believers to look at the eternal promises Christ offers thru His grace, allowing us to see beyond the current struggles we may be facing now 

Highlight Passage [Context]: … 2Corinthians 4:7-18 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… Paul, exhorts fellow Christians to look beyond the present trials to the eternal promises of God, fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.                           

===============   

Reference Passage: … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] …

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  6 Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take. 

… God, thru Solomon, promises God’s peace to those who’re willing to humbly surrender and follow Him rather than trying to take control and do life on our own.

Reference Passage: … Matthew 11:28-30 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …  

… Jesus prays and invites His followers and disciples to humbly yoke ourselves to His strength when we’re feeling weak in the turmoil and stresses of life.  

Reference Passage: … John 14:27 [NLT] … 

27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.  

… Jesus promises His disciples PEACE in the upper room, in the midst of their fearing the loss of their Messiah, showing them (and us) God’s promise of His peace in our times of trial.   

Reference Passage: … 2Corinthians 12:9-10 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

…Paul shows fellow Christians, what he had learned from Jesus, the God’s grace would always be sufficient to empower us in times of trouble.  

Reference Passage: … Philippians 4:6-7 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… God, thru Paul to fellow Christians, shows trusting believers how to find God’s peace, which surpasses all human understanding, by taking our troubles to the Lord, humbly and thankfully, in prayer.

My Devotional Journal: Today's Our Daily Bread author, Monica La Rose … AT THIS LINK …  relates a personal experience, when her husband was furloughed during the COVID pandemic, causing them to have to trust in God and to rely on faith to help them to look and work beyond the current troubles, relying on God’s promises to take care of their needs with His enabling grace. 

That’s the promise the Apostle Paul was bringing to oppressed and troubled fellow Christians in the Highlight passage, isn’t it?   Paul’s intimate relationship with Christ had brought him thru many challenging times (USE THIS LINK  to read of those times when Paul endured extreme hardships but kept the faith and followed Christ’s calling on his life.   

Do any of my readers today have any times, now or in the past, when you had to look to trust God to show you the way (see Prov. 3:6-5-6), … any times when you had to hold onto Jesus’ promise of empowering grace in our times of trouble (see 2Cor. 12:9-10.  I’d bet we all have.  Maybe we even need those Scriptures above today.  If so, we can rely on God’s strength when we’re feeling weak.  

Good battle plan, don’t you think?!! 

My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh, Abba Father, thank You, King Jesus, … for giving me Your strength, Lord, when I’m feeling weak like I am today. .       

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray that all reading here will join me, …  to trust in Your strength today, Lord,  … to carry us thru until tomorrow and on until our eternal calling.     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 cansubscribe to the blog via email at that site.