Dear Ones,
Happy weekend! May you have some restful reflective moments. This morning Al and I are going to another funeral for a friend who lived down the hall from us. He is missed, especially on Bible study days, as he faithfully came and often had questions he would ask.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
  How good are we are guarding our hearts? In Proverbs 4:23 we are told, “Guard the affection of your heart, for they affect all that you are.” We need to give attention to the welfare of our innermost being, for everything flows out of our hearts.                                                                                            One day when I was at the dentist, I brought some reading material along and it just happened that the book I was reading was on the page that was sharing about Psalm 121. It’s a Psalm that has spoken to me when I went through hard times in the past and brought comfort. That day the dental work was on my implants and more difficult than I anticipated, but I could just close my eyes and think on the words of the Psalm as I was getting worked on. ”I lift my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep…”
  Some people have the wrongful impression that when we come to know the Lord, we no longer have any problems or pain. Life is like rose garden without any thorns and if we do have problems something is wrong with our relationship with Lord. Not true! Jesus never said that and but rather told us we can even expect trials of various kinds because we know Him. If we look to the mountains for help, we will be disappointed, but we need to rather look to Him who created the mountains and all creation including us. There is where our help comes from and He never slumbers so He guards us from evil and is with us no matter what we go through. That doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen to us but rather that whatever does won’t get between us and the Lord. Like Eugene Peterson wrote, “All the water in all the oceans cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside. Nor can all the trouble in the world harm us unless it gets within us.” Yes, we will through the same things as others in our world, but God goes with us and we can experience His love and grace as we walk through hard challenging times. In faith we believe that He won’t give us more than we can handle, and He will keep the evil that is going on around us from getting inside of us.
  May we entrust our hearts to the Lord and not fear, knowing that He is watchful and will guard us from all evil.
  Challenge for today: Thank the Lord that He is with you in every moment of your day, no matter what may happen.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy