Dear Ones,
Hope you wake to a joy-filled day. Al will soon be off to men’s group and later leading Bible Study. I am going to bake and have a donut waiting for Al. Please pray for our son, Kurt, as he will be having appendectomy surgery about 10 this morning. He started getting pain on Tuesday while in Chicago but made it home on the plane yesterday and to the hospital where he spent last night and is getting prepped for surgery. Thank you!
Devotions from Judy’s heart
  Who am I? Who are you? Do we live our lives playing the role of who we think others would want us to be or are we real? If we have been abused and received negative messages of who we are, we may build a false image of ourselves that we think others would accept. But it becomes hard to live that day after day until we finally come to terms with being who God made us to be.  God loved us first and it says in I John 4:20, “For herein is love, not that we love God, but that God first loved us by sending His Son as a sacrifice for our sins.” He not only loved us first but loves us every moment of every day of our life. His love is amazing, and it may take a long time, perhaps most of a lifetime for this to sink deep down into the depths of our hearts.

  The good thing is that God’s love is not based on our performance of how good we do, but on His nature, for He is love. God’s love for us does not change. It is only our pride that thinks we can earn His love, for He loves us as we are, not how we think we should be. The Holy Spirit desires to communicate this marvelous love to our hearts. We are all imperfect beings with all our weaknesses, so our hope is only in the grace of God; He loves us and accepts us and desires to show His mercy to us.

The secret is not to try to improve ourselves but to surrender to Him who is love. We are in essence saying we are sinful, needy and broken but God, I thank you that you died for me, you saved me and accept me right where I am right now. Help me to accept myself in the same way you accept me and tell me I am your beloved. I receive it all through faith in your promises, not on my performance. Let me live as your beloved child and be ever grateful.

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to remind you of how He sees you and let Him love you from the inside out.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy