Dear Ones,
Hope you had a great weekend! It was cool here yesterday but in the 90’s for our granddaughter’s soccer game in KS. I plan to do food prep and go to Aldi’s and Exercise class this morning.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
God who created us puts within each of us a longing for Him. But why do we get so distracted and give our attention to so many other things? Of course, the enemy will try to use many vices to keep us from a close relationship with the Lord. He wants us to be attached to the world rather than Jesus and have our main concern be for wealth, possessions and anything that brings glory to ourselves. St. John of the Cross wrote that “the great enemy of the spiritual life is our natural inclination to become attached to things that, however good in themselves, keep us from God.” We probably recognize many of those attachments, but he said even religious rituals, exercises and beliefs can have a negative effect on our spiritual lives. Anything we love more than God and give all our attention to is an attachment or idol.

But there are things we can do to help us get weaned from attachments in our lives, like daily surrendering ourselves to the Lord and asking Him to do a deep work in us. We might want to do times of fasting, and I find that fasting helps me be more alert spiritually, even though I simply fast from after supper at night until the main meal the next day which is at 10:30 for us. Other things that help us keep focused are to meditate on scripture, or even repeating a phrase from a verse to keep our thoughts directed on the Lord. We might also just sit in silence with Him…no words but simply dialing down and being attentive to Him. We might be surprised at how busy our soul is, with a need to focus on Him and not a myriad of other things. We may find instead of feeling empty, we feel fullness.
One thing Professor Gerald Sittser suggests is praying the Lord’s prayer through, petition by petition. Repeat each petition, and then pause to pray more specifically as to what that petition means for us. What works may be different for each of us, but be open to new ways of dealing with attachments and getting the focus back on the Lord.

Challenge for today: Spend time quietly before the Lord and when distractions come, surrender them to the Lord in prayer.
Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy