Dear Ones,
Hope you are enjoying the weekend even though we haven’t seen the sun yet today. The rain in the night made everything so green and fresh and my flowers are especially happy. Al and I both feel better today and thank you for prayers. We don’t have alot of energy yet but that should be happening soon too. I did some cleaning and cooking today but also took advantage of several naps!  
Devotions from Judy’s heart
   Recently, I read an article by Joni Eareckson, who is an artist and author and has a ministry for the disabled. She herself has been a quadriplegic from a diving accident in 1967 so she knows what it is like to live in pain and weakness. She just shared how she can no longer feed herself as her arms muscles are weakening, and that is one less thing she can now do.
   I believe God ministered to her spirit to encourage her as she and her husband were reading through the Bible together. They were in Chronicles which has loads of genealogy that I have a hard time to not just skip over. But in I Chron 4:12 they came across the name Paseah and discovered that his name means “the lame one”. Of course, that spoke to her as a person of a huge disability to think that God mentions him in the Bible. There are other lame people also mentioned and recently I read in Isaiah 33:23 how the lame would carry off the spoils of the Assyrian army. The weakest would be used to take the plunder from that mighty army.
   I like how Joni views that as she sees that when we yield ourselves to God in our weaknesses, God’s power is made manifest in a great way and the enemy is scattered. Her words, “When you pray from a position of affliction, your intercessions have great power with God….God receives the greater glory for His majesty displayed through weakness.”  She goes on to say her weakness is her badge of honor. She must lean into the Lord and receive His enabling power for her each day. Joni can do very little for herself and she knows she can’t live by her own power. She said that her chronic condition paves the way for the Spirit to make her more than a conqueror. As a few lines of the song goes based on Romans 8:37:
 “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us so,
  The Christ who dwells within us is the greatest power we know
  He will fight beside us through the enemy is great
  Who can stand against us? He’s the Captain of our fate….”
No matter what we face in this life, just like Joni the future is glorious when we know the Lord and He has promised to be with us to the very end.
Challenge for today: Let God display His glory through your weaknesses! 
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy