September 19, 2023

Dear Ones,

You are getting this again early for tomorrow since we will be taking off from Louisville, KY. We are at the Drury, and I just had a wonderful swim in the outdoor pool! We went to a Seminary bookstore this afternoon, so Al is a happy man! Thank you for prayers and we are having a great time.  

Devotions from Judy’s heart

 As we travel on our trip to N.C., we still like to eat healthy on the road, just as we do at home. I packed apples and nuts and cheese and G.F crackers etc. to munch on, along with plenty of water besides our coffee. Today so many in our culture are consuming junk food with very little nutritional value and full of sugar and substances that is harming to our bodies.

  Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount that “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled?” (Matt. 5:6) We are to be hungry and thirsty for God and receptive to Him or we will turn to other things to try to satisfy our soul hunger. The enemy, of course, will try to distract us from God and to live shallow lives. Rather than experiencing that which is good for our souls, we may try to satisfy our spiritual hunger in other ways. Perhaps it is easier to listen to a preacher with a dynamic personality rather than satisfy our own spiritual hunger and experience the Lord for ourselves.

  We also need to quiet down, or we will end up feeling starved and stunted. God designed us to eat slowly, healthily, and not fast food and junk food. That means gearing down, waiting on the Lord, and seeking to hear His voice ourselves. He wants to commune with us and is always speaking and wanting to feed us through His ways. In John 6:63 it says that His words that He speaks to us are Spirit and life. He speaks in His word but also to our hearts. It’s important we become quiet and still enough to hear. We can’t really hear when we are distracted and tuned into the noise of the world.

  God is not silent but always speaking and wanting to feed us. Are we hungry? The Word is not a snack but a dinner. As we go to the Word let us expect to be fed and have the needs of our souls met. It is the Word of God to our souls, and it will surely satisfy.