Category: Sister Judy (Page 140 of 277)

 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Haven’t we all dreamed of a life of ease, where everything seems to just flow along smoothly? No computer problems, no deadlines to meet, no battles to fight…just peaceful sailing. Now even though it sounds wonderful, I wonder how our faith would fare? Would we get spiritually lazy and run simply on auto pilot? Perhaps. Even though we love good times, it is often in our times of wounding and brokenness that we seem to grow closer to the Lord and our faith deepens. I read what Anne Neilson had to write about our times of trials and the battles we have to face. She was building a new home over a 3 year period, and while it was being framed, she noticed that the 2 by 6 foot lumber all had ugly knots. When she complained to the builder he told her, “Anne, the more knots there are in the timber, the stronger the wood!” She let those words speak to her in the spiritual sense and visualized that when she went through trials, every victory was a mark on her heart that created a knot and brought strength. What a wonderful outlook. The more knots the stronger we can also become.While at the cabin, I also looked at the walls and ceiling that was full of knots and thanked the Lord they were marks of victory.

When building, after the framing, comes the dry wall that hides the knots just like Jesus covers all by His sacrifice for us on the cross.  Anne quotes from Psalm 147:3 (ESV), “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” He takes our pains and sorrows, bandages up our wounds, and brings healing to us. Scars are marks left by the tissue that is healed; just like Anne, our scars can be symbols of victory.  God often uses us to share our scars with others so that they also may turn to Him and receive healing. Even if we have had a rough start in life, parents that were far less than perfect, things done to us that caused big knots, the Lord can heal us and make us stronger. Let us give all our hurts to Him, let Him cover them with his love, and receive His deep healing.

Challenge for today: Be open to share a personal healing in your life when given the opportunity. 

Dear Ones,

Hope you are enjoying your day. This morning I did more catch up, food prep, and took a friend to the Dollar store. Continue to pray  for our friend Grace who visited as she is not feeling good yet and resting before deciding if they will continue their trip to Iowa. I also ask for prayers for my cousin Susie who has Covid and in acute respratory distress syndrome. The doctor is now trying to get her transferred to Mayo and many prayers are appreciated. Thank you!

Devotions from Judy’s heart

God’s timing is incredible! I specifically prayed for His timing Saturday morning as we were going to the lake. We wanted to get there in time to wash bedding and prepare the cabin for dear friends that were going to arrive after lunch. But on the way I also wanted to see a friend who is in Assisted Living and spends much of her time in her wheel chair. We decided to stop for gas on our way so we wouldn’t get there too early. When we arrived at Birchview Gardens there was my friend outside in the parking lot on her way to the Art Fair in her wheelchair. She had only to go down an incline from where she lived to the Art Fair but I don’t think she could have stopped her wheelchair if she had decided to go that way. I was glad I arrived when I did for when I held onto the handles of the wheelchair, I had a hard time holding it back from speeding down the incline into the path of others.

My friend has such a generous heart towards others and she loves to spend money that she has saved in order to buy gifts for her son’s family and for all the care workers where she lives. Since her eyesight is very limited, we hunted together for just the right gifts. We searched the whole Art Fair for jewelry, but since she needed about twenty gifts, paying over $50 for a pair of earrings was not in the cards. But we came upon a table that had just the right gifts and the right price, and made the vendor very happy too! We began rejoicing and thanking the Lord! Before leaving I wanted to bring her back to her room; it took all the muscle I had to get her up the incline and I wondered how she could have done this on her own without help. We both keep saying, “Isn’t God’s timing perfect!”

I know we may often feel like God is late in answering our prayers and wish He would hurry but we need to trust Him for His perfect timing. Jesus’ brothers wanted Him to show himself to the world and told him to leave Galilee and go to Judea so his disciples would see the great works he was doing. But Jesus responded with, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.” Jesus did exactly as His Father told him to do, and in His perfect timing. Let us not be too soon or too late for our times are in His hands.

Challenge for today: Pray each day for God’s plan and timing for your life and be patient as you wait.

Dear Ones,

Hope you are enjoying your weekend and have time to be refreshed. We are heading out early for the cabin to get ready for our friends who are coming from Washington. We look forward to time together and have so much catching up to do. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

What is the one thing? What is most important in life? Is it not to love God and for Him to be our first love? David describes his seeking after the Lord in Psalm 63 and says, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you…..Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” He goes on to say in verse 6 that he meditates on the Lord throughout the watches of the night. I was reading what Joyce Huggett taught on prayer and she writes that meditation does not mean emptying our minds as in Eastern meditation; but rather it is engaging every part of us which includes our emotions, imagination, our will, our creativity etc. We are to be attentive to God and to ponder and to reflect and to consider His words and let them penetrate our hearts. Jesus must have meditated on Scripture for He knew the Old testament so well that He answered Satan 3 times quoting Scripture and said,” It is written.”

When we dial down and meditate on His word, we will find that our pressures seem to diminish, and in stillness we may find a verse or phrase just seems to refer to a need we have. We don’t need to keep reading but stop there and just ponder it and let the words speak to our hearts. If something has been distressing us, a verse may just seem to spark a truth that reaches from our head to our hearts.

Perhaps we have all experienced a troublesome time and when we went to the Word, a truth or some promise just penetrated us. We received a new perspective and we felt encouraged; even though we didn’t know how things would turn out, we could leave it in God’s hands.

Let us meditate on scripture and be attentive to His voice as He speaks to us, that we may experience the joy of the closeness of His presence; the one thing.

Challenge for today: Read Psalm 63 only until something seems to stand out and speak to you.

 

 

Dear Ones,

Hope you are enjoying the weekend. We are getting a little much needed rain. PTL! This morning I made two batches of individual egg cups and put in the freezer for future company. I did some shopping and we are packing for Michigan. We will leave Monday morning and I since I am not taking my computer along, you will not get devotions on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Recently, I received an e-mail of someone seeking to hear God speak and know His will for a future decision. When we are in such a circumstance it is best to set aside time to pray and quiet ourselves and listen to the One who created us and wants to lead our lives, if we will let Him. But the enemy, however, wants to confuse us and to keep us from hearing and obeying; he comes to us in various ways as Jesus describes in John 10 about the Shepherd and the sheep. First is the stranger who tries to lure us from hearing and following His voice. That can mean anyone who leads us contrary to what God has for us and that might even be a person close to us  like a family member. Next comes the thief for he wants to steal and kill and destroy and to keep us from an abundant life in Christ. He may try every trick and does not really care for the sheep. Then there is the hireling and he should never be trusted. He will just take off and leave the sheep when times of distress come. Lastly there is the bad wolf who scatters and ravages the sheep for they matter nothing to him.

We have many enemies that want to destroy us and keep us from following the Lord and His will for our lives. But the best defense is to stay close to the Lord and not listen to the other voices of the stranger, thief, hireling, or wolf.

Jesus is worthy of our trust and obedience for He gave His life for us and wants to protect us and feed us and care for us. His will is best and He says in John 10:10 (The Message), “I came so they can have real and eternal life more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” When we follow His will, we will sense His pleasure and feel a sense of rightness and completeness. Being in the center of His will is the most secure place to be. We need to hide God’s word in our heart so we recognize if the voice we are hearing is our Good Shepherd.

Let us stick close to our Shepherd and not fear but follow in whatever way He leads us, for He is there with us until the end.

Challenge for today: Consider how the Lord has been leading you and ask Him to correct you if you are straying from His perfect will.

Dear Ones,

Happy weekend to you! Hope you have time to get refreshed! I cleaned the apartment this morning and also wrote letters and studied. Had another answer to prayer this morning and you will hear about it tomorrow.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

God loves us from the cradle to the grave, but even more than that from the time of our conception through all eternity. Nothing, absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love! I read the familiar passage today from Romans 6:38-39 (God’s Word), “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love which Christ Jesus our Lord shows us. We can’t be separated by death or life, by angels or rulers, by anything in the present or anything in the future, by forces or powers in the world above or in the world below, or anything else in creation.”

Yesterday at our Bible Study here at the apartments, we recognized God’s powerful love in all phases of life. One person shared how one of the men in Teen Challenge came to see them with his new baby. God had set this young man free and now he was experiencing God’s love in the gift of his precious baby.

Another man came in late, again from his Doctor appointment and was told the good news that his colonoscopy showed he didn’t have cancer in his colon after all. There was clapping and much praising of the Lord as God’s love was expressed in healing.

Another woman showed up just as we were ready to close the Bible study and with tears in her eyes, said that her sister died just a few minutes before. Her sister knew the Lord and God in His love took her home to be with Him for all eternity. We prayed for our friend and for all the others who would miss her presence on earth. In that short hour of Bible Study, God’s love was evidenced in each circumstance of life. Let us never think that we can be lost to His love, not even in sickness, or persecution, or death. The Lord is with us to the end and we are secure in His love that knows no bounds.

Challenge for today: Thank the Lord for His love and live in the awareness that His love never runs out.

Dear Ones,

Hope you are enjoying the day. This morning I made porkchops smothered in apples, Starch free cookies. went to Aldi’s and also downstairs for donuts. Kurt and Brenda also stopped by on their way to the cabin. This afternoon we have Bible Study here and Al also went to one at church this morning. Life is not boring! 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Life should be simple, right? But sometimes it is anything but simple. We have an overabundance of stuff that clutters our minds, so many engagements we don’t have time for, and many distractions that keep the Lord on the periphery of our life rather than the center. Jesus referred to this problem when He said to His disciples in Matt 16:24-26, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever will save his life will lose it and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.” We have to watch out for the self-life that wants to possess, profit and gain and in the end lose everything. But when we give up everything for Jesus’ sake, we don’t suffer loss but find abundant life.

Maybe we need to evaluate our lives to discover what our attachments are, those things that hold us back from the Lord. It could be people in our lives, or possessions we have (or want to have); anything we prize more than the Lord is an idle or attachment.  I was reading from A.W. Tozer who wrote Pursuit of God, and he used the example of Abraham who waited so long for a son. How easy it could have been for him to make Isaac an idle by putting him before the Lord. But he was tested by God when asked to sacrifice his son, and he obediently took the steps of even binding his son to an altar for a sacrifice. Then the Lord stopped him and told him not to do his son harm, for he knew now that he feared God above all, since he had not withheld his son. Abraham had surrendered all and he possessed nothing but had everything.

Maybe we have so much that it detracts us from our life with the Lord. Could it be that God wants us to live more simply? Do we spend too much time and resources on things that will pass away? A good place to start might simply be getting rid of our excess and things that keep us from what God wants to do through our lives.  What might be our prized possession? Let us give all that we are and have to the Lord and let Him do with us what He desires.

Challenge for today: Ask for grace to surrender anything in your life that keeps you from living simply for Him.