Dear Ones,
An early good morning to you! About 7 this morning Donald is having surgery for melanom and please pray for him. This is the father of Kurt’s business partner. This afternoon we have our second Bible Study in our community room and it is so good we can resume them again.  
Devotions from Judy’s heart
I just finished reading Eugene Peterson’s book on Psalms called “Answering God”.  What I noticed was the Psalms are really prayers answering our God who has already addressed us. Of course, we may not always understand what He is saying to us at the time so we need to listen carefully. Most of the Psalms are complaints by hurting people calling for help and it seems strange to call this The Book of Praises. But if we follow the Psalms to the last word and final goal, they all end with praise. It is the finished product. Like Peterson says, “All prayer, pursued far enough, becomes praise.”  Now it may not happen immediately and sometimes it takes a life time but it does end in praise for those who know Him. Knowing the end shapes our journey through life and helps us in our day to day living. So often when I am reading the Psalms there is a lament and a description of pain or doubts etc. but then right in the middle often comes words of praise. “But I have trusted” or “I will rejoice and sing to the Lord”. When awful things happen and we think of the ultimate end, we can actually sing praises also. One Psalm, and one Psalm only however, is titled Praise. It is Psalm 145 and David wrote it and uses the form of acrostic, the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. But there is no lament, no complaint it is all praise and everything from A to Z. And isn’t that just like our lives as His children? It doesn’t matter what we suffer or go through in this world for one day, it will all end in praise. Our hearts hurt when we see our loved ones suffer and are helpless to relieve it, or maybe we are the ones in pain; but gradually be may find our prayers finally turn into praise. I memorized Psalm 91 when we were going through a hard time in one of our churches, and it was a constant message to me of God’s strength and comfort for me. But it wasn’t until we got to our next church that I could actually praise the Lord for all that He carried us through and could see His purpose. All of our prayers reach for praise even if it takes a while to get there. Like Peterson said, “The end of prayer, all prayer, any prayer is praise.”
Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to speak to you as you sit in quiet with one of the Psalms and then respond to Him.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy