I may use this verse for a near-future devotional:
I am Yahweh, that is My name;
I will not give My glory to another
or My praise to idols. (Isa 42.8 HCSB)
A bit ironic that most translations put LORD in the place of his name.
Man has no nobler function than to defend the truth. —Ruth McKenney
... many of us would hasten to agree with her statement.
But she was wrong.
Man has a nobler function. Defending truth is good and necessary, but does not lie at the peak of the scales of those greatest purposes that man could adopt.
Read my debut article on Weylan Deaver's Biblical Notes magazine: click on the tiny link above.
After every time of exaltation we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountain top is measured by the drab drudgery of the valley; but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mount, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the sphere of humiliation that we find our true worth to God, that is where our faithfulness is revealed.
via myutmost.org
The valley is the crush of the crucible, where we are proved, where faith is tested, and where we learn from our failures to discover the power of our Lord to transform failure to success, slavery into freedom, selfishness into service for His glory.