Dear Ones, Hope you have a blessed day. We had a good turnout for the cardmaking party yesterday and a time of fun and fellowship. This morning I plan to bake and a good friend is coming.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
We hear a lot about Spiritual Formation today, and we may think of it as ways and disciplines used to help us grow spiritually. But it is more than the right techniques, for spiritual formation is really about who God is and what He has done for us. We come to know Him and His holiness as we put our faith and hope in Him, and love Him and others as we love ourselves. We might think of our formation as the fruit of our relationship with Him, for He is to be our goal first and foremost.

Daily we need to be filled with the Spirit as it says in Eph. 5:18, not filled with more techniques and disciplines, but with the Spirit. It is a work of God and He is the one doing the action of filling us up, and the result is fruitfulness and growth. We can’t fill ourselves by other means, even if it is worship or ministry or studying. We need the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts anew.

We come to the Lord just as we are and in the truth of His love. In our own strength, we are unable to transform our own lives to be like the Lord, but we simply open our hearts to Him in truth. The ancient spiritual writer, Bernard of Clairvaux, said we are to be like a reservoir that is filled with the Spirit and is being filled with love, wisdom and knowledge. The result is we then pour it forth in all we do. We might say the proof is in the pudding, or in our attitude and actions. We learn our transformation is not from spiritual disciplines and self-effort, but the fruit of God’s life in ours. It may show up as a quick willingness to forgive those who hurt us rather than getting angry.  Or instead of trying to fix ourselves, we become receivers of God’s grace and mercy. Let us put the Lord first and foremost in our lives and open ourselves to the continual filling of the Holy Spirit.

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to show you whenever you put something before Him, and seek Him first. Matt. 6:33
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy