Daily Devotional, Year 3 – July 27 (In Every Thing Give Thanks!?! Part 7: “Careful What You Wish For!”)
By admin On February 16th, 2021.
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Daily Devotional, Year 3 – July 27
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In Every Thing Give Thanks!?!
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Part 7:
“Careful What You Wish For!”
To read Part 1, click here… February 1st (In Every Thing Give Thanks!?!)
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“Be careful (worried) for nothing;
but in every thing by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests
be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6, 7
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“Careful what you wish for!”
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Have you ever heard that expression?
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Well, it’s been a fairly popular saying. And as far as human proverbs go, it’s actually not too bad!
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Simply put, it’s a warning against wishing for some thing which ultimately may end up being a bad thing!
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Birthday Cake – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
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ABRAHAM AND SARAH
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Now the Bible makes similar warnings. Some of these warnings are found within the various stories in both testaments.
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One such story was the true account of childless Abraham and Sarah, and their 
obsession to have a son.
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Oh yes, God had promised to give them a child.
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“And I (God) will make thy (Abraham’s) seed to multiply as the stars of heaven,” Genesis 26:4
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Yes, God promised to not only give Abraham a son, but also to multiply his lineage as the stars of Heaven for number!
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But alas, the waiting time became long.
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And this long delay caused them to begin to doubt God’s promise.
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Schnorr von Carolsfeld – 1860 – Abram counts stars – Wikipedia – Public Dom. (2)
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ABRAHAM GREW TIRED OF WAITING
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Well, in their overwhelming desire to have that promised child they finally concocted a plan of their own: to sort of, well, “help God out”.
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Yes, Abraham and Sarah grew weary with waiting. And so, they finally decided to use their own wisdom and effort to bring this promise to fruition.
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Sarah & Hagar – Foster Bible Pictures – Wikipedia – US Public Domain
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AN ISHMAEL WAS BORN!
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And one day, Sarah counseled Abraham to go in unto Sarah’s handmaid, Hagar, the Egyptian, and conceive a child through her.
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Well, this plan worked, bringing them a son, Ishmael.
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But God rejected Ishmael from being the child of promise. No, God had His own plan.
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And God ordained that Abraham’s wife, Sarah, was to conceive that long-promised child, not Hagar!
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Hagar Leaves Abraham – by Peter Paul Rubens – 1616 AD – wikipedia – public domain
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“He that is entered into His (God’s) rest…has ceased from his own works”
Hebrews 4:10
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Well, needless to say, great problems ensued, resulting from Abraham’s and Sarah’s faithless effort to, “help God out”. And they ultimately learned their lesson…the hard way!
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They finally realized that God wants His people to trust Him implicitly!
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And he doesn’t want them to rely on their own strength, nor on their own wisdom, nor on their own human effort.
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Hagar and Ishmael – cropped image – Wikipedia – Share-Alike License
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“LEAN NOT UNTO THINE OWN UNDERSTANDING!”
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Listen to the Wise Man…“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not 
thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.” Proverbs 3:5-8
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This above counsel is perhaps one of the greatest truths of Scripture!
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And it should be emblazoned upon the heart of each and every Christian!
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God doesn’t want us to behave like the faithless secularists of the world! No, He wants us to fully trust in Him and in His great and precious promises found throughout Scripture! This is how we are to live. By His “exceeding great and precious promises!” 2nd Peter 1:4
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USMC – Prayer before Bible study – Wikimedia – Public Domain
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“WITH THANKSGIVING, LET YOUR REQUESTS BE KNOWN TO GOD”
Philippians 4:6
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And so, the Christian must be careful not to become obsessed over something!
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And as you can probably well imagine, the Devil would love to see us become so feverishly obsessed over some desire, that we begin to exercise our own strength and wisdom to obtain that desire!
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“BE ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING!”
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But here is another critically important exhortation…“Be careful (worried and anxious) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6, 7
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This is another passage that should be written upon our hearts: that to have true peace, we just cannot allow ourselves to get worried and anxious and even obsessed about anything!
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“THOU (GOD) WILL KEEP HIM IN PERFECT PEACE… BECAUSE HE TRUSTS IN THEE”
Isaiah 26:3
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God wants His children to live in perfect peace.
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Thus, whenever we begin to become anxious and nervous and even obsessed over some issue, we have unknowingly left the protective shelter and covering of God’s Spirit.
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And we have become in danger of obtaining our desire via our own strength and wisdom!
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But like Abraham, our faithless human efforts will only bring us future sorrow and failure!
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And like Abraham, we may have to live with the devastating repercussions of our human folly!
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Weeping Woman – Van Gogh – Wikimedia – US Public Domain
Vincent van Gogh – Old Man in Sorrow (On the Threshold of Eternity) – Wikipedia – US Public Domain
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And so, O child of God! What are you desiring? A new car? A new place to live? A new job? A new toy? A new friend? A wife? A husband? A pay-raise? A bed of roses?
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Question Marks – At a loss – svg – Wikimedia Commons – Share-Alike License
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“NO GOOD THING WILL HE WITHHOLD FROM THEM THAT WALK UPRIGHTLY”
Psalm 84:11
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But God’s Word shows us the correct pathway to follow each day. This is the pathway to victory.
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And God requires us to follow the Bible’s prescribed pathway, to finally obtain our desires. Or not to obtain them!
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“BE WITHOUT COVETOUSNESS; AND BE CONTENT WITH SUCH THINGS AS YE HAVE”
Hebrews 13:5
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In other words, God knows what is best for us.
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Our little finite minds are not sufficient to understand what is best for us.
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Our trust should be great enough to leave matters in the capable hands of our Heavenly Father, whose, “understanding is infinite.” Psalm 147:5
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Girl Praying – Wikimedia – Public Domain
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“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities:
for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:
but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us
with groanings which cannot be uttered”
Romans 8:26
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TO READ PART 8, CLICK HERE…
“ March 8 (In Every Thing Give Thanks!?! Part 8: “Cancer, a Faith-building Experience?”)“
Breast cancer cell – Wikimedia – Public Domain
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TODAY’S PRAYER…
“Dear Lord, Help me to fully trust in Thy sovereign will for my life. Keep me from allowing my desire for any thing to cause me to stumble and fall into faithlessness. But help me to leave all matters in Thy capable hands…
Marine Praying – Wikimedia – USMC Public Domain
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READ MORE…
To explore deeper into this subject, please read… June 6 (Taking Back This Nation For God! Part 8: “Careful What You Wish For!”), or you can also read… “February 1st (In Every Thing Give Thanks!?!)“
Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license
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THE END
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TODAY’S FEATURED HEAVENLY SIGN
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THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE ARTICLE… “THE ARMOR OF GOD”
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“PUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD”…
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I didn’t understand all that Ephesians 6 was talking about. “What does it mean to put on ‘the breast plate of righteousness'”? This was very puzzling to me… “How does a person just put something like that on?” This was a concept above my comprehension.
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“And how does a person ‘put on the helmet of salvation'”, I thought to myself… “especially while Satan is condemning and accusing every moment?”
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“And how do you put on the shoes, with the gospel of peace’?” I couldn’t understand these concepts. I was too new in the faith.
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ONE CONCEPT THAT DID MAKE SENSE…
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But there was one thing I could understand. I knew what it meant to take the “sword of the spirit, which is the word of God”. Now that I got! Read the Bible! That’s a simple concept! Yeah!
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The sketch above is Orion the Soldier and the Dragon of Revelation 12. They begin to rise in the east in the fall and gradually move westward, finally sinking in the west in the spring. Find Orion first. Look for his 3-star belt. Then find the 4 bright stars of his shoulders and feet. Then locate the Dragon’s mouth (AKA Hyades).
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READ MORE…
To explore deeper into this subject, please read… Orion the Soldier (Armor of God)
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TOMORROW…
July 28 (The Pre-Trib Rapture, Part 4: “Lesson From Genesis”)
Tissot – The Plague of Locusts – Wikipedia – US Public Domain
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20+ MINUTE AUDIO STUDY IN JEREMIAH 
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ALL ‘NOBLE BEREANS’ (open-minded seekers of Bible truth) ARE ENCOURAGED TO BEGIN FOLLOWING THIS 650+ AUDIO BIBLE STUDY THROUGH THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH EACH DAY ON THIS DAILY DEVOTIONAL.
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THIS STUDY #206 IS PRESENTED BY THE LATE HAROLD CAMPING…
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above picture: Prophet Jeremiah – www.christianimagesource.org – Public Domain
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