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March 8 - The Ministry of Understanding · Bible Chat Devotional

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  Welcome to Bible Chat, where we have devotional conversations
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  rooted in Scripture and relevant for today.
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  March 8th. Roots that bare life.
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  Have you ever felt so overwhelmed that you wondered if
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  you had anything left to give? Like life kept draining you and
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  instead of growing, you felt like you were barely surviving?
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  Some seasons don't feel fruitful at all.
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  They feel dry, exhausting, and confusing.
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  In Job chapter 17, verse one, Job says, my spirit is broken,
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  my days are extinct. The graveyard is ready for me.
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  That's not mild discouragement, that's deep anguish.
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  Job felt crushed. His future looked empty.
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  His strength felt gone. Maybe you've had moments where
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  your spirit felt broken too, where hope seemed distant and
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  joy felt unreachable. But then Proverbs Chapter 11,
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  verses 30 to 31 tells us the fruit of the righteous is a tree
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  of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.
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  If the righteous is repaid on earth, how much more the wicked
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  and the Sinner? The fruit of the righteous is a
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  tree of life. Think about that image.
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  A tree doesn't produce fruit overnight.
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  It grows slowly. Its roots stretch deep before
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  its branches stretch wide, and even in harsh weather, if its
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  roots are strong, it survives. Living God's way doesn't
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  guarantee easy seasons. It guarantees deep roots.
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  And Job chapter 36, verse 15 says he delivers the afflicted
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  by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity.
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  That means adversity isn't wasted.
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  Pain can become a classroom. Hardship can become a place
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  where God gets your attention in a deeper way.
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  Sometimes it's in the breaking that we finally listen.
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  Sometimes it's in the struggle that we learn to depend fully on
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  Him. When your spirit feels low, it's
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  tempting to believe you have nothing to offer.
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  But if you stay rooted in God, through prayer, through
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  scripture, through quiet trust, your life still produces fruit.
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  Maybe it's patience. Maybe it's compassion.
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  Maybe it's wisdom that only comes from walking through fire.
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  Other people will one day sit under the shade of what you grew
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  through. A tree of life doesn't exist for
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  itself. It blesses others.
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  Your faith, even in pain, can encourage someone watching you.
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  Your decision to stay connected to God when life is hard speaks
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  louder than you realize. You may feel like you're in a
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  barren season, but roots grow strongest underground where no
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  one sees. God is working in the hidden
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  places of your heart. He is shaping your character.
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  He is teaching you through adversity.
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  And in time, fruit will come. So don't measure your life only
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  by what you see above the surface.
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  Measure it by where your roots are planted.
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  If they are planted in God. You will grow, you will bear
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  life, and your story will bless others.
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  Let's pray. Heavenly Father, when my spirit
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  feels broken and life feels overwhelming, remind me that you
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  are still at work in me. Help me stay rooted in You so my
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  life produces fruit that brings life to others.
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  Teach me through adversity and open my ears to what You want me
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  to learn. Grow my faith in the hidden
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  places and use my life for Your purpose in Jesus name, Amen.
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  What if the most important question in your life deserves
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  more than a shallow answer? Does God Exist is a powerful,
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  thought provoking series that explores reality, meaning, and
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  truth through reason, evidence, human experience, and scripture
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  without preaching pressure or assumptions.
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  Book 1. Something from Nothing confronts
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  the mystery of existence itself and asks why anything exists at
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  all. Book 2.
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  The Cause Behind the Cosmos, examines the origin of the
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  universe and whether it points beyond itself.
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  Book 3. Design or Accident wrestles with
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  order and complexity. Are they products of chance or
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  intelligence? Book 4.
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  The Moral Signature explores why objective right and wrong may
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  require a source beyond human opinion.
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  Book 5. The God We Cannot Escape
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  considers conscience, longing, and humanity's persistent
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  awareness of God. Book 6, From Reason to
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  Revelation, asks whether the God who exists would also speak, and
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  Book 7, Denying God, examines the internal tensions of
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  unbelief and the deeper implications of rejecting the
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  divine. Written in clear, accessible
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  language for seekers, skeptics, students, and curious minds,
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  this series invites honest reflection and careful thinking.
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  If you're ready to explore the question seriously, Order Does
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  God Exist? On Amazon or visit
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  prayerscripts.org today. Now I invite you to spend time
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  with God in today's three-year Bible reading plan.
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  Proverbs Chapter 11 verses 30 to 31 World English Bible.
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  The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.
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  He who is wise wins souls. Behold, the righteous shall be
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  repaid in the earth. How much more the wicked and the
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  Sinner. Job, Chapters 15 to 17 World
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  English Bible. Then Alyph, as the Temenite
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  answered, should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and
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  fill himself with the east wind? Should he reason with
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  unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no
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  good? Yes, you do away with fear and
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  hinder devotion before God, for your iniquity teaches your
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  mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.
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  Your own mouth condemns you, and not I Yes, your own lips testify
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  against you. Are you the first man who was
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  born, or were you brought out before the hills?
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  Have you heard the secret counsel of God?
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  Do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we don't
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  know? What do you understand which is
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  not in us? With us are both the Gray headed
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  and the very aged men, much older than your father.
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  Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the Word
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  that is gentle toward you? Why does your heart carry you
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  away? Why do your eyes flash?
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  That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words
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  go out of your mouth? What is man?
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  That he should be clean? What is he who is born of a
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  woman? That he should be righteous?
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  Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones.
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  Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight.
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  How much less one who is abominable and corrupt, A man
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  who drinks iniquity like water. I will show you, listen to me.
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  That which I have seen, I will declare.
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  Which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not
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  hidden it. To whom alone the land was
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  given, and no stranger passed among them.
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  The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of
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  years that are laid up for the oppressor.
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  A sound of terrors is in his ears.
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  In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.
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  He doesn't believe that he will return out of darkness.
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  He is waited for by the sword. He wanders abroad for bread,
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  saying, Where is it? He knows that the day of
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  darkness is ready at his hand. Distress and anguish make him
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  afraid. They prevail against him as a
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  king ready to the battle, because he has stretched out his
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  hand against God and behaves himself proudly against the
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  Almighty. He runs at him with a stiff
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  neck, with the thick Shields of his bucklers, because he has
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  covered his face with his fatness and gathered fat on his
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  thighs. He has lived in desolate cities,
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  in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to
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  become heaps. He will not be rich, neither
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  will his substance continue, neither will their possessions
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  be extended on the earth. He will not depart out of
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  darkness. The flame will dry up his
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  branches. He will go away by the breath of
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  God's mouth. Let him not trust in emptiness,
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  deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his reward.
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  It will be accomplished before his time.
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  His branch will not be green. He will shake off his unripe
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  grape as the vine, and will cast off his flower as the olive
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  tree. For the company of the godless
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  will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
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  They conceive mischief and produce iniquity.
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  Their heart prepares deceit. Then Job answered.
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  I have heard many such things. You are all miserable
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  comforters. Shall vain words have an end, Or
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  what provokes you that you answer?
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  I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul's
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  place. I could join words together
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  against you, and shake my head at you.
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  But I would strengthen you with my mouth.
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  The solace of my lips would relieve you.
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  Though I speak, my grief is not subsided.
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  Though I for bear, what am I eased?
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  But now, God, you have surely worn me out.
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  You have made all my company desolate.
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  You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me.
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  My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.
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  He has torn me in His wrath and persecuted me.
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  He has gnashed on me with his teeth.
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  My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.
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  They have gaped on me with their mouth.
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  They have struck me on the cheek.
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  Reproachfully they gather themselves together against me.
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  God delivers me to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of
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  the wicked. I was at ease and He broke me
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  apart. Yes, He has taken me by the neck
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  and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for His
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  target. His Archers surround me.
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  He splits my kidneys apart and does not spare.
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  He pours out my bile on the ground.
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  He breaks me with breech on breech.
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  He runs at me like a giant. I have sewed sackcloth on my
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  skin and have thrust my horn in the dust.
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  My face is red with weeping, deep darkness is on my eyelids,
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  although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure
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  earth. Don't cover my blood.
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  Let my cry have no place to rest.
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  Even now, Behold, my witness is in heaven.
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  He who vouches for me is on high.
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  My friends scoff at me, My eyes pour out tears to God, that he
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  would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son, of man
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  with his neighbor. For when a few years have come,
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  I will go the way of no return. My spirit is consumed, my days
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  are extinct, and the grave is ready for me.
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  Surely there are mockers with me.
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  My eye dwells on their provocation.
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  Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with
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  yourself. Who is there who will strike
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  hands with me? For you have hidden their heart
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  from understanding. Therefore you will not exalt
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  them. He who denounces his friends for
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  plunder, even the eyes of his children will fail.
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  But he has made me a byword of the people.
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  They spit in my face. My eye also is dim by reason of
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  sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.
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  Upright men will be astonished at this.
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  The innocent will stir himself up against the godless, yet the
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  righteous will hold to his way. He who has clean hands will grow
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  stronger and stronger. But As for you all come back, I
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  will not find a wise man among you.
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  My days are past. My plans are broken off, as are
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  the thoughts of my heart. They change the night into day,
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  saying the light is near in the presence of darkness.
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  If I look for she all as my house, if I have spread my couch
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  in the darkness, if I have said to corruption you are my father,
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  and to the worm my mother and my sister, Where then is my hope?
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  As for my hope, who will see it? Shall it go down with me to the
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  gates of she All or descend together into the dust?
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  Thanks for joining us on Bible Chat, where Scripture meets
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  everyday life. If today's devotional encouraged
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  you, share it with a friend and be sure to follow the podcast so
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  you won't miss the next conversation.
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  Until next time, stay rooted in truth, anchored in hope, and
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  walking daily with Jesus.