Dear Ones,
Hope you wake to a wonderful day. Al will be going to preach at Assisted Living today after a month or more off because of lockdown there. Hopefully they are well now. I have Exercise class, Crafts, and later Lenten supper and service. It is quite different from last week’s snow when it was canceled.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Haven’t we all had times of shaking when things rattle and change? I was reading an article by Kim Potter and she describes the shaking going on today, even in and our own lives. We have only to watch the news to see changes taking place in our world, church, and family as things are shaken and exposed. God will shake everything that can be shaken, not to rattle us but to uncover and remove the negative things so we can be fruitful.

Now we probably won’s say it is a pleasant thing to be shaken but it is necessary so we can lay aside those things that weigh us down and keep us encumbered. I love the illustration Potter gives of a man in Florida who has his garden professionally landscaped with gorgeous azalea bushes. They were beautiful, all except one that wouldn’t bloom no matter what the gardener did. But one day a terrible storm hit and shook everything violently and afterwards that azalea bush began blooming like all the rest. The gardener said that there some bushes that just need to be shaken in order to bloom!

Maybe we feel like we are being shaken but it is good to know it is for our own good. It says in Psalm 75:3 that “The earth and all its people may shake, but I am the One who holds it steady.” Or like the Message translation says, “When the earth goes topsy-turvy and nobody knows which end is up, I nail it all down, I put everything in place again.” We can trust that whatever shaking goes on in our lives, God will give us grace to help us let go of the things that need to change and will hold us steady as we learn to trust Him in a deeper way. May He shake and awaken each of us to let go of anything that distracts or encumbers us and hold on to Him

Challenge for today: When shaken, ask the Lord what needs to go and release it to Him.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy