Dear Ones,
Hope you wake to anticipation of a beautiful day.  I hope to go down stairs this morning for coffee and choc covered raspberries and then we are invited to friends this afternoon. 
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Have you noticed how we often struggle with the same sins over and over again? We are sorry at the time but then do it again.  It’s important that we recognize our sins and name them, for then we can seek God’s help to change us and to become more like Him. Chara Donahue writes on Crossroads.com about habitual sins women may be struggling with but I suspect if you are a man and reading this, you might find it applies to you as well.
We all sin each time we think we know better than God and proceed to go our way instead of His. But the truth is that God’s ways are higher than our ways and we need to pay attention to how He directs us. It says in Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV), “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Maybe our sin is the struggle with delayed obedience and telling God we will do what He asks later, but not now. We hate to get interrupted and end up tabling what God says, telling Him we will do it another time; but He may have to use someone else to meet the need.
Perhaps we are also guilty of tolerating “smaller sins” and call them by other names like weaknesses and mistakes; but we need to hate all sin, even the things our society celebrates. We may struggle with fear of man and get into people pleasing, but we should seek first to please God and to reverence Him. Another sin Chara names is planning without consulting God. We need the Lord to guide us and slow us down to listen to His plan, rather than to depend on our own human wisdom. And there is the sin of gluttony but not just of food; it can be an excess of anything like shopping, watching T.V., exercising, or anything that is overdone and robs us of time with the Lord. There is also the sin of pride that trips us up. We want to get the glory for something we excel in and fail to acknowledge that our gift and power to succeed is from the Lord. Then there is the sin of grumbling and complaining. It isn’t always obvious, but maybe we ask for prayer and then go into long explanations of the situation and complain. Sometimes our sin may be envy when we realize we are lacking in something that someone else has. Or we can be discontented as we see that others seem to have more than we have and we want what they have. But like Paul, we can be content in whatever situation the Lord has us in. Let us not keep struggling with the same sins but let us ask the Lord to change our hearts.
Challenge for today: Confess your sins to God and to seek His higher ways.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy