Dear Ones,
Hope you wake to a new awareness of God’s mercy and His love for you! This morning Al will be going to men’s group, and I will be doing food prep and cleaning. We have Donut Day and Bible study this afternoon.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
  I wonder if all of us haven’t been through wilderness times, times we felt we were not in control, and can’t figure out what is going on in our lives. It can be exhilarating and also frightening, but one thing we notice, we also feel more alive, and see things in new ways. The Wilderness is a quiet place for the most part and a place of beauty but also can be dangerous. Some go the wilderness for a week of camping and love the unclutteredness of life and time to ponder. Others are in a hurry to get back to their busy city life with all the conveniences. When we lived at the lake, we had 600 feet of lakeshore but also 40 acres of thick trees, where I could easily get lost. I knew there were bears, bobcats, skunks, fox, wolves etc. but that didn’t hinder me from my daily walks alone. Although I mostly stuck to the gravel road, it was a time for me to pray and ponder.
  When I read in the Word about David, he didn’t just decide one day it would be a nice to have a wilderness experience, but he was chased for his very life there by King Saul and his men. Eugene Peterson writes about what David’s experience could have been like and he actually went to En-Gedi to look at the very country that David hid out in and peeked into caves he could have hidden in etc. He got a feel for the harshness of life that David must have experienced.  There was beauty in the wilderness, but it was also unpredictable. David spent a lot of time on the run from Saul, and there was more than one time he could have killed Saul but he would not touch the Lord’s anointed. He instead he lifts his heart to God in prayer and some of the most beautiful Psalms recorded where his prayers spoken in such times. He used the word refuge many times and found his refuge in the Lord.
  We may feel like we are in a wilderness time and can’t figure out what is happening. May we also seek the Lord and pray as David did from the cave. (Psalm 57:1-2}, “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me.”
  Challenge for today: Read the entire Psalm 57 and give thanks to the Lord for where He has you right now.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy