Dear Ones, Hope you are able to keep cool on these warm days. I walked on the trail yesterday with Al but the next days will be even warmer. I plan to clean the apt this morning and do food prep.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Sometimes I must remind myself to just be honest with the Lord, and not sugarcoat what is going on in my life but to be real with Him. Recently, I read about Psalms of Lament, that there are many Psalms that help us face what we are going through, speaking how we are feeling to the Lord. Since Jesus probably participated in the communal praying of the Psalms, He must have prayed and even sang the laments as well. We know He lamented when Lazarus died, when He was in Gethsemane, and when He died on the cross, crying “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46)

We also can lament, which is a prayer that we speak to the Lord about our pain and brokenness. We tell Him exactly how we feel and are struggling, and then shift from focus on our self to focus on the Lord. David is so honest and asks how long the Lord will forget him and hide His face. But after sharing his sorrow he says, “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.” (Psalm 13) I’m glad that we can express to the Lord our true feelings and be open with Him and tell Him our complaints, our disappointments, our hurts, even our doubts! But we must guard against complaining about God to others. Instead, we tell God everything, for He is our hope and the One who can help us. It doesn’t necessarily mean He will take away the situation we are in, but rather we see things in a different light and ask what we can learn. We don’t have to rush through this stage, as we need time to work through our grief. Some things we suffer may not change until glory, but we remember that He is loving, powerful and kind. After we tell Him what is on our hearts, it often leads us to remembrance of times past when He has rescued us and led us, and it may help us to move on to worship Him and praise Him.

Then it is important to give our situations to the Lord and to surrender it all into His most capable hands. Just as I am writing this, the sun broke through the many clouds and is shining right in my eyes. Isn’t that what the Lord works? As we worship Him, He shines His light into our darkness and we find joy even in the midst of what we are going through… for our joy is found in Him, not our circumstances.

Challenge for today: Be real with the Lord, give Him your complaints; then give everything confidently to Him and follow with praise and worship.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy