Dear Ones,
Hope you are enjoying the weekend. More rain today but keeps the grass keeps getting greener. This morning I cleaned the apt and wrote letters and studied. Tomorrow we will be going to church in Hackensack as Al is preaching there. We are going to Ann’s afterwards for dinner and I have a wild blueberry crisp made for us to sample. 
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Prayer is so important and when we neglect prayer, we can find ourselves lacking peace and feeling distant from God. Then when some difficult circumstance happens to get our attention, we quickly cry out to Him. But why not enjoy the love and peace of being joined with the Lord throughout our day and attentive to His voice of love?
While at our son’s house, I had time in the morning after the grandkids went to school, to just sit quietly looking out on the woods and being with the Lord. It was just good to be in His presence and words weren’t even necessary…just prayer without words.
Sometimes we may barge into the day on a dead run without thought for the Lord. It isn’t long before we are exhausted and feel sorry that we have caused others frustration and also ourselves. Maybe we have overslept and have children to get ready for school but we can still send dart prayers to ask for God’s help.
J.C Rift wrote a little book, A Call to Prayer and challenges all of us to form a habit of daily prayer.
He said that prayer is the mark of a true Christian. When you think of it, how can we call ourselves a follower of the Lord and just not spend time with Him? When we pray, we are in faith committing everything into His hands
The habit of prayer brings us encouragement as well, for we see God at work and in action all around us.
Prayer helps us align ourselves with what God desires for our lives. We seek His will and know that He is the One directing our life.
When we don’t pray, we may become stagnant and backslide and soon we feel distant from Him.
The habit of prayer brings peace, no matter what things are happening in our lives. We may have a big project at work and even though we may not know how we will get it done, committing it into God’s hands helps us quiet our fears and gives us a clearer mind.
I am reminded of what Paul said in Eph. 4:6-7 (ESV), “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let our requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Let us form the habit of prayer and live in His peace!
Challenge for today: Spend the first waking moments giving your day to the Lord and share with Him throughout your day.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy