Dear Ones,
Hope you wake to another sunny day with spring bursting forth! I love observing out our bedroom window of trees that are changing daily. Would that we would all be growing every day and not hindered in the transfomation process. What things seem to block us  from being transformed to the likeness of the Lord?
Devotions from Judy’s heart
  Haven’t we all been discouraged at times that we are still being tempted in an area we felt we had overcome; it makes us feel like we have failed and are not making progress in our Christian walk. But as I was reading from “Grace on the Journey to God”, Michael Casey writes that it is really a sign that everything is going well.
  The devil doesn’t bother to tempt those that are already in his ball park obeying their own fleshly desires, but he is after those who are struggling to overcome and want to serve the Lord. He knows our weak areas and tries to get us to give in to the temptations he sends our way. Sometimes it would seem like he sneaks up on us and catches us at the moment we are weakest. It is a time to call out for God’s help.
  We need to acknowledge that our heart is deceitful as it says in Jer. 17:9 ((NESV), “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse—who can understand it?” Ever since we were born our hearts have been bent toward sin. No, we are not basically good as some often say, but we do have a choice if we want to give in to temptations or if we will ask for God’s help. But our temptations can also help us know ourselves and show us the areas in our lives that are not under the Lordship of Jesus….ways that we go off on our own and result in barriers between us and Him. It is easier to resist the truth than it is to humbly admit what the Holy Spirit shows us is hidden in our hearts. When we refuse the truth, we will find our hearts get harden.
   Casey said it is good to call our vices by its name (like gluttony rather than enjoying God’s good gifts), take full responsibility for our actions and omissions, construct a case of why we should give up the vice, listen to the feedback from others, and ask God to extinguish the vice.
  But even when temptation knocks us for a loop, the Lord will catch us and forgive and help us to stand again. We experience His unconditional love and come to know in a very real way how we cannot depend on ourselves but only on Him.
  Challenge for today: Ask the Lord for an undivided heart that desires His will above your own.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy