If people can’t see what God is doing,
they stumble all over themselves;
But when they attend to what he reveals,
they are most blessed

Proverbs 29:18 – The Message Bible

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By Friday, we can use a mood uplifter, especially in today’s masked up politically crazy world. Reading Oswald Chambers’s My Utmost for His Highest devotional today, I turned the page to find just such a devotion for tomorrow! It seemed like one of those words just meant for sharing. Here it is:

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Taking the Next Step

…in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses. —2 Corinthians 6:4

When you have no vision from God, no enthusiasm left in your life, and no one watching and encouraging you, it requires the grace of Almighty God to take the next step in your devotion to Him, in the reading and studying of His Word, in your family life, or in your duty to Him. It takes much more of the grace of God, and a much greater awareness of drawing upon Him, to take that next step, than it does to preach the gospel.

Every Christian must experience the essence of the incarnation by bringing the next step down into flesh-and-blood reality and by working it out with his hands. We lose interest and give up when we have no vision, no encouragement, and no improvement, but only experience our everyday life with its trivial tasks. The thing that really testifies for God and for the people of God, in the long run, is steady perseverance, even when the work cannot be seen by others. And the only way to live an undefeated life is to live looking to God. Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the risen Christ, and it will be impossible for drudgery to discourage you. Never allow yourself to think that some tasks are beneath your dignity or too insignificant for you to do, and remind yourself of the example of Christ in John 13:1-17.

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I turned my Bible to John 13, read the full chapter, and continued reading into John 14. Oswald Chambers was right to encourage readers to delve into Jesus’ words. The eyes of our spirits do find Him there! Jesus’ words in John 14 brought the reality of His presence home.

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” ~Jesus (John 14:15-18)

Be encouraged. When Jesus Christ is our Lord, we know that it is the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead that resides in us. We are moving towards a great future!

God bless you always,

Nancy M.

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For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV

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