Category: Sister Judy (Page 252 of 271)

 Devotions based on Mother Teresa/No Greater Love

Mother Teresa said “Give of your hands to serve and your hearts to love.” She emphasizes the importance of giving of ourselves as we give to others…not just money or goods, but the love we put into our giving. Ours is not to pass judgment on others but see the good in others.  That means we must be patient with each other’s faults and failures.  We tell people about how forgiving and kind God is, but can they see this kindness and forgiveness alive in us?   Each one of us is created in the image of God and we must accept each other as we are. Let us use our tongues for the good of others for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.  May we remember that we must possess His love within us before we can give it out to others.  All over the world people are hungry and thirsty for God’s love.

Devotions based on Mother Teresa/No Greater Love

It has been very convicting  to read Mother Teresa’s thoughts on love as it shows me my  “anemic” love for the Lord. I pray she inspires you as she does me to open myself more to His love and to show that love to others.

She says for us not to think that love has to be extraordinary to be genuine.  Often it is just the small things of daily life: faithfulness, small words of kindness, a thought for others, our way of being silent, of looking, of speaking, and of acting.  Isn’t it wonderful that He uses us to be His love and compassion in the world in spite of our weaknesses and frailties?

It is the intensity of love we put in to our gestures that makes them beautiful for God. Let us conquer the world with our love.  That means starting at home within our families.  Fro there, love spreads toward whoever may need us.

“IT does not matter how much we give, but how much love we put into our giving.”  Even when we cannot  give much,  we can always give joy that springs from a heart that is in love with God.   The best way to show our gratitude to God and people is to accept everything with joy.  “A joyful heart is a normal result of a heart burning with love. “

Devotions from a book on Mother Teresa /No Greater Love

Mother Teresa is known for her immense compassion and openness and her service to the poor. Though she was small in stature, she was great in spirit and cared for those the world neglects.  She didn’t depend on her own strength but relied on the Lord. She said that praying to Him is loving Him. “Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of Himself.”  She spoke often of being humble and childlike with simplicity. She felt that you learn humility only by accepting humiliations. Of course we meet humiliations all our lives and the greatest one is to know that we are nothing.

 She believed in silence as the way to hear God speak. If we do not listen in silence we cannot hear His voice as He speaks to our soul. Then from the fullness of our hearts, our mouth will speak.

She says not to seek extraordinary experiences in our lives but do our day –to-day tasks with extraordinary love and devotion. “Our life of contemplation simply put is to realize God’s constant presence and His tender love for us in the least little things of life. “ May we walk in His presence and see God in all the persons we meet today, and to live our prayer throughout the day!

Devotions based on an article by Diana Murphy

Time!! Do we ever have enough hours in a day?  Do we somehow think we can keep up with our frenzied lifestyle indefinitely? What do we do when everything we want to accomplish consumes our time to the point of exhaustion?
Jesus came to give life and give it abundantly.  He was very busy but He made stops along the way to heal the sick to raise the dead etc but He also withdrew to pray. 
Is withdrawing from our busyness and taking time to pray the way to get more done?   Yes!  If we thought of our schedule as our service to Him and that every deed can become worship, our attitude can change from “I have to do this” to “I am using my gifts to serve others.”  We can then rejoice in what we did get done not what didn’t get done. Our focus changes from doing things to being God’s servant.  Even while we do things we can saturate our day with prayer.  We can pray for our family as we serve them. God has placed us in the world at this particular time to serve Him.
May we not live our lives so wrapped up in our schedules that we miss the sunsets, the rainbows, the embrace of family etc. We all have 24 hours every day. Will someone be more aware of God’s work in the world because of us?  Let us frame our calendar with eternal values?

Devotions from Margaret Silf’s book, The Wayfarer

When we look at our lives and our personal giftings, we come to realize that His love that is being poured into us is alive and active.  God pours himself into the funnel of our lives, and enters the core of our being through the narrow channel that we call our life, our experience. He acts upon us in certain ways, and shares Himself with us, whether we realize it or not. If our lives are free enough to let God pass through them, in a flow of grace, then something will pour out of the other end.  It will show itself in the ways we act and share ourselves.  Will we respond by bringing life and love where there is none?  Will we act co-operatively? Will we act healingly? Will we act uniquely, offering our own personal gifting to the world?

We come into the world with nothing and receive everything. All we can ever hope to do for God is to give Him back what is His own.
When our personal existence here on earth is over we will all have made a difference. We are free to choose if we will leave this world a little fuller of Life than when we arrived or if we leave it diminished.

In our hearts may we desire to be funnels of God’s love in the world. Let us reflect each day if His love is flowing through us and if we are adding flavor to the world around us.

May we be able to pray, “You gave me every gift, and to you I return them. Use each one entirely according to your will. Give me only your love, and your grace, and that is enough for me.”

Devotions based on Margaret Silf’s book, The Wayfarer

As we look back on our personal experiences of pain, we will often find it produced great growth in our lives.   In these very places of our brokenness that we thought was a barrier between us and the Lord, may be the very place where we find Him most readily.  “We shine with the light of God only when the scouring pads of experience have stripped away our rough edges and encrustations.”  We need to get in touch with our woundedness  and let these experiences be remembered in the Lord’s presence,  with the knowledge that in Him is a deeper security and peace.

The risen Jesus comes to us often in an ordinary moment that we so easily miss, if we are not looking with the eyes of love.  We must let go of the fears that dominate our lives and keep us captive, afraid to live out some aspect of who we really are.   Jesus wants to break through our blindness of despair and fears of uncertainty and empower us with new hope.

The resurrection is not an end but a new beginning. “We are called forward into the rest of our lives, not as mourner at the foot of our brokenness, but as carriers of the new life that has poured out of that breaking. “ Let us not cling to what is still earthbound but move on to all that lies ahead. Let us move on with empty hands that are free to receive all the gifts that are waiting for us along the forward journey.

Devotions based on Margaret Silf’s book, The Wayfarer

As we journey with Jesus we may come to the choice of whether we will follow Him into the place of suffering and hardship. It we do it will cause us to lean on Him as our rock and face the many things that may be unwelcomed to us.

That may also happen in our friendships with others when we must decide if we will go with them through a tough situation or whether we will desire our own comfort and security more. If we choose to be with that friend it will likely lead to life and reflect His attitude of love. “The pathway of extraordinary love, deliberately chooses to cross the threshold of his own suffering and death.”  Do we choose to live true to the core of our being and have the courage to implement those true choices in our real day-to-day experiences?  Jesus chose the way that appeared to lead to the loss of everything, in order to bring us with Him, home to the Father’s heart.

We also need to ask for grace to acknowledge those aspects of ourselves that lead us to betray, deny, abandon, compromise, etc. God wants to redeem these very things within us but we need to open them up to Him. It requires us to expose our hearts to Him for cleansing.  Then He can then strengthen the tendencies in us to be faithful, patient, and trusting.  We may be surprised at the new growth that will take place in our lives, even from those things that were painful!

Devotions from Margaret Silf’s book The Wayfarer

What does it mean to live and bear fruit for His kingdom?  Each of us does this in our own unique way as we live out our own unique circumstances and are open to God’s love and grace flowing freely through us..  One thing we all need is humility of spirit.  This calls us to accept the circumstances in which we find ourselves with a positive attitude.  IT means we actively seek to bring life out of those circumstances. We must choose to respond to our particular issues in a life-giving way and thus bring His loving presence to our world. Jesus infused love into every situation. His attitude was always one of forgiving love and mercy to those who waver and fall and find themselves in the captivity of sin. But those who hold others captive through narrowness, and abuse of power He vigorously opposed.    What are our underlying attitudes? Do we respond in loving, life-giving ways?

Even when we are bound by fear or feelings of hopelessness or helplessness we can invite Jesus into those situations and ask Him to touch them with His love. Also when we are rejected by another we can ask Him to set us free from our dependency on the good opinion of others.

May He help us to grow beyond where we are at now and to be opened to His way of living and loving.

Devotions from Margaret Silf’s book, The Wayfarer

The Lord wants us to come into His presence and be real and open to whatever comes up… willing to take off the censorship filters and let Him be God in our lives.  We need to be truthful with Him and with ourselves. Sometimes we pray about everything except the one burning issue in our lives that we don’t want to look at. The author had two people in her life that were giving her grief and she kept pushing them out of her prayers. But instead God wants to be in all of our life and relationships and open to the movements of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes the seed which has been sown in our hearts seems to grow silently in the darkness and then all of a sudden a new shoot starts to show in our daily life. It seems to amaze us but it is His hidden work.  Often we see the growth of God more easily in others than ourselves. Why not share with others how you notice the Godseed growing and sprouting in their lives and let them do the same for you?

It’s important to stay connected to the Vine as we have all we need to live and grow. 
To journey with the Lord is not a burdensome journey, even though it may lead us through many hardships. The joy it generates in our hearts will make the path easy. He says, “I am he Way on which you walk, the Truth that you are searching for, the Life that will make you fully who you are created to be.”  Let us follow Him as He calls us!

Devotions based on Margaret Silf’s book, The Wayfarer

As we journey with the Lord we each have a unique calling.  To me as a housewife Jesus might have said, “Come follow me and I will help you to make a home where God himself may dwell.” To a nurse or Dr. the invitation might be to “Come follow me and I’ll teach you how to heal hearts and souls.”  To a fisherman he might have said, “Come follow me and I will teach you how to fish for the minds and hearts of your fellow men.”  etc

As we feel called to follow the Lord what do we need to take with us on this journey?

1. We need the staple food of Prayer. …constant communion with Him as we listen to Him and take time for Him.

2. We need trust . That comes out of our own helplessness, not from all our achievements.

3. We need integrity….The willingness simply to be true to ourselves with no room for pretensions.

4.  We need readiness…to expect the unexpected and be wakeful to notice God’s presence in our daily lives.

5. Wholeheartedness…to retain enthusiasm that we had when we first came to know the Lord

6. Discernment…to distinguish between what is leading us closer to God and what leads us away from Him. Discernment should continually grow sharper as we exercise it.

7. Detachment…the ability to avoid getting sidetracked and to not depend on things or people.

Let us journey with Him as we spend time together, learning from Him, hearing His wisdom and instruction, listening to His stories, watching Him in action and spending time alone with Him.