Category: Sister Judy (Page 214 of 279)

I am using Devotions from Kurt. He wrote this to us a short time ago and I wanted to share his words with you.

“I took some sermon notes yesterday and I thought I would share them.  
The sermon was about creating margin in your life in order to create space in our lives for God.  In order to give more, we have to create margin.   As margin decreases, stress increases.  As margin decreases, focus narrows. Success is fulfilling God’s purposes for our lives.  Margin doesn’t happen by accident. We need to have a plan.  He asked the question “what good things will I give up to make room for the best thing?  This may mean we learn to say no.
One point he made that I think we can all appreciate is if the devil can’t make you bad, he will make you busy.  We need to transform from Human Doings to Human Beings.
We need to move from “I will use the resources of my life the way I like” to “all the resources of my life belong to God. He has called me to manage them.”
From “I can do anything” to “I was created with limits.”
“Are you  tired and worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me.  Get away with me and you will recover your life. I will show you how to take a real rest.  Walk with me and work with me– watch how I do it.  Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.  Keep company with me and you will learn to live freely and lightly”  Matthew 11: 28-30 (The Message)

May we flow in the unforced rhythms of grace!!

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Today I   read from Luke 18 when Jesus says for us to “always to pray and not lose heart”.  Sometimes we pray but in the back of our mind we think the situation is impossible. But we don’t have to understand how God will answer our prayers but only to commit it all into His hands. I have been joining someone in prayer for a situation that has been ongoing and seemingly to get continually worse. But just the other night as we prayed together, I asked the Lord to send someone into her loved one’s life to be His instrument and bring healing.  Well, last night my friend called and she was so excited, as after all this time, God had indeed done that.  She kept saying it is a miracle!  Further on in Luke 18:27 Jesus says, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”  That is so true and we must not lose heart in the meantime. Let us give Him all our impossible situations for we have a miracle working God!

Devotions from Judy’s heart

I read this scripture from Isaiah 64:1 today, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!”. I think that all of us have felt at times that there was a ceiling on our prayers and that our prayers didn’t seem to go beyond. Yesterday we talked to Ann’s family on Skype and they could see us plainly and hear us clearly but their voices were very garbled to us. We tried so hard to get what they were saying but most of it was like someone talking with a mouthful of marbles. I wonder sometimes if it isn’t like that with us and the Lord. He sees us very clearly and hears every cry of our heart. But we don’t always hear him clearly.  We need a good connection. Just after we talked to Ann’s, a friend was on Skype with me and I could hear her very well. I felt like I was in her house sitting across from her and talking together. . Isn’t that what we wish for our relationship with the Lord?  To see Him and to know His voice more clearly?  May He ask Him to break through all our defenses and all our barriers so that we can enjoy sweet communion with Him.

 Devotions from Judy’s heart,

Isn’t it wonderful how God has equipped us for everything He has purposed for us to do in life? We have gifts that differ from one another and we are to use them!  ( Rom. 12:6)  Sometimes we’ve probably all been guilty of filling an empty place, without asking for the Holy Spirit’s leading. And of course, it gets very frustrating for us and for the others around us when we do that.  While we were helping to build the outdoor brick oven, an Italian builder from Canada was our chief engineer. Al and I both knew, without a doubt, that we could not fill his position but we could be his “go-phers” (laborers). He has built ovens before and knew the steps to take for the end result.   We did not have his expertise to do his job and were glad to take our own place. He on the other hand, may not feel comfortable preaching either!  It is important to let the Lord place us and only fill the slots He has for us. Let us rejoice wherever He assigns us and not apologize for gifts we haven’t been given, but use what we have.

 Devotions from Judy’s heart 10-15

Last night I ate an enormous piece of choc birthday cake with 4 different kinds of choc filling. It was simply scrumptious and I am still feeling full today! I can’t imagine eating something that rich and sweet all the time and yet that is often what we want the Lord to feed us. We may say feed us sweet things and nothing difficult that would require any sacrifice on our part. We love when He gives us promises to feed us the finest of wheat, to prosper us and make us rich. But what about the meat of doing His will? To obey Him when it demands sacrifice on our part?  We would rather hear all Grace and not think about disciplines or consequences of our decisions. We may also want more than we can really eat. Last night most of us could not eat a huge piece of cake because it was so rich, and like a giant piece of fudge. We also, must eat the portions the Lord gives to us as we can only handle so much at a time. May we receive whatever the Lord gives us for each day, with the knowledge that He knows what is best for us and how much to give us. Sometimes He may surprise us with a rich dessert that is awesome, but we also need meat etc for our spiritual growth.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Let us not presume that we KNOW!  We can go by the law of averages and think that we have a 99% chance something won’t happen, but we could be in that 1%. We don’t really know! Our pride thinks we do know and we may advise others as to what they should do too. As we went to Nevis one Sunday morning we came upon 6 deer along the side of the road. Al slowed down and one crossed the road in front of our car and the others started going to our right. But two of them decided to run along side our Highlander for quite some time, and then one of them crossed right in front of us. Now we would have thought that that all of them would scamper into the woods but if we assumed that, we may have hit one of them. We must always keep ourselves open and not locked in our minds, thinking we know something. Only He knows it all, even to the number of hairs on our head. Let us go to Him afresh and let His Spirit instruct us moment by moment.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

When I went downstairs a couple days ago, I noticed an aroma from the cupboard being particularly strong with an onion smell. I checked out the bag under the sink and sure enough in the bottom was a rotten onion. It had already started to blacken the onions on either side of it and I quickly got rid of all that was rotting. Sometimes we get a whiff of something that is just not quite right and we need to pay attention. Maybe something smells “fishy”!  As I look back on our lives, there were times we had a sense that something didn’t feel good, but didn’t know why.  When we kept sniffing around, we often found out why we had uneasiness in our spirit.  It led us to refrain from acting on what we had previously planned. But there were other times when we just chalked it up to being too cautious and later found out we should have listened to our spirit. Let us not underestimate the ways God speaks as it can not only affect us but the people around us. If I had left that rotten onion alone, it would have affected the whole bag.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

I went for a late afternoon prayer walk yesterday and noticed how most of the leaves are now off the trees. It made it possible to see deep into the woods. No longer hidden were the many down trees, piles of brush, and one stump after another.  I thought of how just a short time ago the leaves blocked all this from view. I’m sure we all have had need to see through things that have been hidden before our eyes. We may have asked the Lord what is going on here and question as to what is happening.  Our need is for clarity and for discernment for things that are hard to see into. I read this morning from Rom 11:33 : “O the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.”  On our own we can only see dimly but “With the humble is wisdom.” ( Prov. 11:2 )  May we be humble enough to admit we can’t see on our own but seek the hidden wisdom of God and discern His ways.  He knows the depths of all things and gives wisdom and discernment.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

One day when I was going to Line Dancing and Bone Builders I went into my closet and put on my black exercise pants that my daughter-in-law gave me. I neglected to put on the closet light and after I got them on they did not fit right. I wondered if I had gained weight but I had already weighed myself and was just the same as usual. I worked around the house and they felt tight and uncomfortable and just before I was to go to class, I realized I had them on backwards. No wonder they didn’t fit right. I wonder if there are things we are doing in our lives that aren’t a good fit for us. Maybe we are told to go into a certain field of work, or maybe we have been influenced by someone we respect.  I remember when Al was confused about his future, a pastor we respect told him to go into selling books for a while. Even though we thought highly of him, Al did not feel that was a fit for him. There are times when something doesn’t feel good and doesn’t seem to fit, we need to wait on the Lord and discover what He has for us. For then it will be a perfect fit.

“Wait for the lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage: wait for the Lord!” Psalm 17:14

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Yesterday I went to a gathering of women and was blessed by the program as each one talked about “Getting out of the Boat”…times in our lives where we were like Peter and dared to step out. Each speaker from age 13 up to 65 plus was good and I was especially impressed by one who said she was new in leadership, not adventuresome, quite shy, and not a speaker. But as she spoke I was very touched as I began to see her heart. She shared about trials that God had taken her through ( including a daughter who was raped and a son who was suicidal) and even questions she has now of what the Lord is up to in her own life. I thought of the scripture from I Sam. 16:7 “For the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.” Samuel chose David over all his 7 brothers as the Lord revealed that he was the one to be anointed as king.  I think most of the ladies yesterday looked past the outward and saw this woman’s heart. May we do that for one another! I want to be a heart-reader!   I think we all know what a wonderful feeling it is when a friend understands and reads our heart.