Dear Ones,
Hope you wake to a day of grace and forgiveness for anyone that has hurt you in the past. The question for today: What seems to help you most in extending forgiveness to others and perhaps even to yourself?
Today I’m going to clean and do some food prep for Father’s Day. Tomorrow, we plan to go to Hackensack to hear Leif preach and then on the lake to celebrate Father’s Day.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
I think we have all been criticized at times when we were doing good. Maybe we put ourselves out there and expended a lot of energy and time in a project and then discover that our integrity was attacked. At first it is hard to believe, and we are puzzled that we would suffer for doing right. We protest that we were doing it out of a heart of compassion, and now we get attacked.

 David lived much of his life getting hunted down and fleeing for his life. While just a young boy he was concerned for God’s reputation and went against the giant who defied God. His brothers criticized him for even being there at the war site. Later he was attacked again and again by King Saul, who was jealous of him and tried many times to kill him. He hated David for David was good and did what was right. Even when David was almost pinned to the wall by the king, he would not harm the Lord’s anointed king. Perhaps David’s goodness exposed Saul’s sinful heart.

Even in the midst of being the recipient of Saul’s jealous assaults, God gave David a special friendship in Saul’s son Jonathan. They made a covenant together and David was helped to overcome his circumstances with Saul. Instead of each of them thinking how the other person could aid them, they willingly gave what the other was in need of. They believed the best in one another and had a deep trust. For Jonathan, it meant giving up the throne. We also see that David grew stronger in his trust of the Lord, even in the attempts on his life by Saul. The evil and jealousy in Saul didn’t get inside of David and neither should it get inside of us when evil is done to us.

David, like us, did many things wrong and yet he never quit. He knew to go to God and ask forgiveness, just as we must. Let us get up again when we are knocked down by the evil of others and the evil in our own hearts and go the way of forgiveness and love.

Challenge for today: If attacked by another, go to the Lord and ask for grace to respond His way.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy