Dear Ones,
Happy weekend to you! It is good to be home again after a wonderful trip, and now we are regrouping and will get ready for Party Day here. I have lots of food prep to do and then we will go get the cake and set up. 
Devotions from Judy’s heart
  Have you ever had to fight discouragement and wanted to throw in the towel and just give up? We have probably all had such times but when we love we must never give up but patiently endure as it says in I Cor. 13:7, “Love never stops being patient, never stops believing, never stops hoping, never gives up.” Love hopes and endures and bears all things!  We must hang on to those words, for our culture today lives much the opposite for it wants instant gratification and instant answers and no pain.

Of course, the enemy’s message to us is to give up when the going gets tough, and tells us the lie that God can’t be trusted. He puts doubts in our minds and we must quickly counteract those lies by going to scripture and praying that He give us confidence and trust that He is in control. The Holy Spirit can give us hope and a positive attitude even while going through hard trials. Apostle Paul certainly experienced so many, but he knew he was called by God and never gave up. He writes to us to have patience and endurance and to expect good to come from our trials.

We need to hang on to the truth that God can work all that we are going through for good someday. We may not see it while we are going through it, but later we may understand and can even give praise. The Bible is full of verses that tell us to persevere, to not get discouraged, to endure. I was reading about Dwight L. Moody who was a world evangelist. He worked among the poor and became discouraged that he didn’t see more results. But his Sunday school teacher told him to study carefully about the story of Noah, which was familiar to him. When he did, he realized that Noah worked 100 years and didn’t get discouraged even though people were making fun of him as he built the ark. He didn’t have fellowship outside his family, and people weren’t coming to him for prayer or to know God. He just kept doing what God told him to do! Moody was changed by studying Noah and decided to simply do his best but leave the results up to the One who called him to preach.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Let us not get discouraged and quit but do the work God has called us to do.                                         
Challenge for today: Go in the strength of the Lord and never, never give up.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy