Dear Ones,
Hope you had a great weekend! Warm weather but we still enjoy our walk on the trail. I have an appointment this morning with the dermatologist at 7:45 and should get done in time to go to my exercise class.
Devotions from Judys heart
When we desire to grow in the Lord, we find we are in a battle between our flesh and the Spirit. Paul says in Galatians 5:16 that we are to “Walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.”  Sometimes it is hard to know what our part is and what is God’s part when the battle is going on. There is a division of labor as we put on the outward visible work, but it is God’s work to bring change in us.
I remember years and years ago hearing Pastor Larry Christianson put this into a way that helped me to visualize this. He said it is like a carpenter that builds a form before cement is poured into it. When the cement hardens the form is discarded and the cement remains. The wooden form is our role in sanctification as we don’t work patience, kindness or love into ourselves but just construct the outward form into which God pours His work of holiness. He gives the example of someone trying our patience and we feel guilty because we recognize how impatient we are. But instead of trying to work up patience we construct a form. One of the boards may be listening to our irritating neighbor. We try to hear where she is coming from. Another board could be prayer and to start praying for her. Or It could be a board of a thoughtful deed like maybe taking her a meal or even giving a kind word. Then we need faith to nail these boards together after which it is ready for God’s divine cement to be poured into as He does the inward work in us. We do the temporary outward work, but He does the inward work that lasts. So instead of striving to be more patient and loving, we trust Him to change our heart as we conform our lives to His will. As Paul says in I Thess. 5:24, “He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.”
Let us construct the outward form of love and trust that the Lord will fill it with the real thing. One woman who married early and to get out of her home situation and found herself in a marriage to a man that she didn’t really love. But she laid out an outward form by praying and doing thoughtful things for him and the Lord was faithful and filled in with real love!
Challenge for today: Conform your will to God’s will in outward things and be surprised at His divine filling!
Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy