Dear Ones,
Hope you are enjoying the weekend! You are getting this early as Lynn and I are going to Hackensack this morning for the ladies’ Christmas Tea at the Lighthouse…. a highlight in preparation for Christmas! We hear snow is coming tonight and hope it isn’t a lot as we are serving at church in the morning! 
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Yesterday I wrote of the inner journey and what it is to hit the wall. Everything seems to be going well outwardly as we have been busy serving the Lord, and yet we come to the place we are inwardly dry. We don’t feel that joy bubbling up and we begin to rely on ourselves and take matters in our own hands. We may try to remedy this by seeking to read the Bible and praying more, and doubling our efforts by spending increased time in spiritual disciplines etc… and yet we still feel unsettled and dry.
It could be that it is a wake-up  call from the Lord, inviting us to go into the next stage of the journey, where He brings us into a new place of intimacy. All that we have been doing in helping others etc. is good but our first calling is our own relationship with the Lord. Drs. Bill and Kristi Gaultiere authors of Journey of the Soul, write of how it is a time we have to stop doing for the Lord and start just being with Him. When we feel stuck and tired and lacking in peace, it is time to not do more but to rest in His love without the sense we have to accomplish something.
St John of the cross, practiced “holy idleness” and said to pastors that it was more profitable to spend half their time with the Lord in prayer and the other half in their work. The challenge is to us also to cut our work load of doing, and spend time with the Lord.
A group of pastors who were overworked went on a retreat and spent 24 hours in silence where they were not to try to make things happen or write sermon notes etc. but just be with the Lord. They could relax in His presence, go for a walk, sit by a lake, and open themselves up to God’s loving presence.
Maybe some of us experienced that in a small way if we were quarantined because of Covid and had to stay quietly apart from others. It can be an opportune time to help our souls to be realigned and cultivate new ways to relate to the Lord and to prepare us for the next stage of the journey where we work in harmony with the Lord and in His strength.
It says in Heb. 4;9-11(Message), “The promise of ‘arrival’ and ‘rest’ is still there for God’s people. God himself is at rest. At the end of the journey, we’ll surely rest with God. So, let’s keep at it and eventually arrive at the place of rest, not drop out through some sort of disobedience.”
Challenge for today: Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, open yourself to the next stage the Lord has waiting for you.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy