February 5, 2024

Dear Ones,

Hope you had a great weekend and time to get refreshed for the week! This morning I am going to make choc chip cookies on a stick and go to my exercise class.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  What is our view of God? Do we think of Him as someone who is a buddy and the One we can order around to provide us with what will make us happy? God showed Himself in Jesus as a servant, but not to take orders from us, rather to do His Father’s will.

  I am reading Eugene Peterson’s book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, and today I read what he had to say about Psalm 123 which begins with, “I look up to you, heaven-dwelling God, look up to you for help.” We are to look to God, for He is in charge, He is the one who knows all and leads us. He is the One we look up to get our orders from. We are, in a way, like what may be described as a lump of clay that He is being fashioned into a vessel for His glory. It’s good that He doesn’t take orders from us, because we would really botch things up and be a lumpy mess of clay. We have many examples in life and scriptures of those who thought they could do a better job and ended up in a mess, even a pig pen. It’s a wise God that doesn’t always give us what we want, as what He has for us is a million times better. .

   We rather need to live under God’s mercy and the Psalmist pleads to be free of being kicked around by others and to really experience that mercy. Then we are free to live to please our Master and to take orders from Him. We want to know His will above ours and do what pleases Him. We can choose to place our whole day before the Lord as an offering and ask Him to be present and to direct us. As we look up to Him, He may use us to do specific acts of service to others, that come with ease, since we are not fighting our own wills. We are all the while learning to walk by the Spirit and life becomes full and free and exciting.

  Let us be alert and ready to do our Father’s will and experience freedom under His Lordship.

Challenge for today: When tempted to do your own thing, look up to the Lord and live life on His terms.