June 24, 2021

Dear Ones,

Hope you are enjoying another beautiful day!  This morning I baked cookies on a stick and went downstairs for donut time. We have Bible Study this afternoon and I love all the sharing as we come from different churches and backgrounds. Yesterday afternoon I was pleasantly surprised as a friend from our former church in Hackensack surprised us and came for coffee. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

God has a plan for each of our lives and it is a specific road that He made just for us to travel. We don’t have to compare it with others or confer with them, but stick to what He has prepared for us personally. I was reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians this morning and says in Gal. 1:15-16 (God’s Word), “But God, who appointed me before I was born and who called me by His kindness, was pleased to show me His Son. He did this so I would tell people who are not Jewish that His Son is the Good News. When this happened, I didn’t talk it over with any other person.”  God’s plan for Paul was determined before he was born to be an apostle to the Gentiles. He didn’t have to see what Peter, James or John were doing but only to stick to what His calling was. In fact, Paul had to make a U turn in his life of persecuting Christians to one that became a believer and sought to win the Gentiles to the Lord. Quite a change for him. Sometimes we have our own plans for our lives and may even choose our life professions on a job that has prestige and praise of men. But if that isn’t what God has planned for our lives, we may have to make a U turn like Paul. If we choose to keep going, we will miss the deep peace of being in His will and may even make others around us miserable. Or maybe we are on the right road but come to a detour when the Lord calls us apart for a season to deposit within us something needful for our journey. Then before long we are soon back on the main road again. When we live to please the Lord, we will be watching for the sign posts and adjust our lives to His plan. When we align our life to God’s will, that’s when we can really relax, stop striving and really enjoy life to the fullest. We will notice the beauty around us, bask in our peaceful surroundings, and enjoy what the Lord has for us. Some Sundays at our church we have a video played of our missionary of the month. What I notice about their families is the joy they exude of being called to a certain country to share the gospel. It isn’t like “poor me and what a hard road we have to travel” but rather “look what we get to do!” Let us live freely and joyfully in the journey God has us on.

Challenge for today: Ask the Holy Spirit to make you sensitive to God’s will in your journey and to adjust when needed.