Dear Ones,
Hope you have a blessed day! I plan to do food prep and later we are going to visit friends for a time of
fellowship and prayer if the weather holds out. The question for this week is, when have you experienced the Lord bringing something positive and good in your life from what seemed so negative and bad at the time? What did you learn from it?
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Sometimes the Lord can use even our mistakes to bring about good and to bless others. The apostle Paul said in Romans 8:28, “We know that God works all things together for good to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.” Do you think that would include even the bad experiences and failures in our lives that can be woven together and come out good? I rather think so. One translation says that He knows us better than we know ourselves and we can be sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
I have a simple practical example to share that recently happened to me. I am known to multitask quite often, and sometimes it is just one too many things going at once. One morning I made some starch-free cookies, was also making two different salads, and at the same time I decided why not make cookies on a stick as well. Things were going pretty well as I made the dough, that was until the first pan of cookies came out of the oven. They didn’t look like they usually do and were very very flat. What happened? I know the recipe by heart and didn’t need to look at it, but these cookies would never make to a friend’s house or be served at church, and even the popsicle sticks were falling out of them. Not good. I’m sure I did not put enough flour in them and miscounted the scoops as I used ½ cup measuring cup. Bummer! I felt bad that I wasted the ingredients, and of course the time too, but great good came out of it for Al as he was not sad at all. In fact, Al was quite happy as he enjoyed the flat cookies with whipped cream squirted on top for all his coffee times in the next week. He thought it was great! The cookies didn’t turn out like I had planned, but God used the crumbled cookies to make my husband very happy.

Now if God can do that with some simple cookie crumbs, can He not do that with the big things in our lives? Perhaps your job was terminated and yet now you have one that doesn’t require as much travel. Or maybe you were humbled and gave others a good laugh like I did that day I goofed and shared it with the Craft class!

Challenge for today: Thank the Lord for a time when you felt like you failed and then saw good come out of it and be ready to share with someone when prompted by the Holy Spirit.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy