Category: Sister Judy (Page 28 of 267)

Dear Ones,

Today is Party Day here and we will be going to Costco early to get the cake. Later this afternoon we have a retreatant coming who will spend the night and all day tomorrow with us. We pray he will have a special time with the Lord and get refreshed and renewed.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

We are soon to celebrate Thanksgiving Day and it is a time to remember all the ways the Lord has blessed us and to give Him thanks. Too often our hearts neglect to give Him praise and thanks due Him, for all that we are and have comes from Him. I was reading what Mark Roberts from Fuller Seminary wrote as he invites all of us to do something that I think can help us have grateful hearts and make our Thanksgiving rich. He shared from a Psalm 103 that I memorized some time ago and it starts out, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all His benefits.”

“Gracious God, thank you for the encouragement of Psalm 103. I do want to bless you, not just with part of me, but with ‘all that is within me.’ And I don’t want to forget all of your benefits. Help me Lord to remember…and to be grateful. I’m thankful that you are present with me at all times. But I’m also grateful that you meet me in special times, especially when I can get away from all that distracts me from you. Help me, Lord, to make time the next few days for intensive and extensive gratitude. Help me to remember all of your benefits and to thank you for them. May this truly be in my life a season of thanksgiving for you! Amen.”

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

Growth takes place as we deal with the sin that we commit but also that which is done to us. We can experience healing as we confess our sin and open our wounds to God. When we set everything before the Lord, we will begin the transformational process that lasts a lifetime. To be more like Jesus we may have to give up some daily practices and habits that keep us at a distance from the Lord; but then we also take on new practices like meditating on the Word, time in quiet listening, memorizing scripture, worshipping throughout our day etc. Those things will help us renew our minds as we trust the Holy Spirit to do His work in us which is a gift of grace.

As you can see it takes a lifetime to become who the Lord made us to be. To be like Him is to experience His love, joy and peace as we walk in obedience to the Spirit’s promptings. We all go through times of suffering that also help us develop perseverance and character and hope. Let us be intentional to become more like Jesus and mature in our faith as we are open to let Him transform us through whatever means He chooses. (II Cor. 3:17-18)

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope you have a blessed day. I plan to bake cookies on a stick and go to exercise class and Crafts and later Bible Study.
Devotions from Judy’s heart

Our joy should not be dependent on what is happening around us but rather what is happening within us. When we know the Lord, we can live in peace and contentment even when everything around us is not what we would like. It’s how we react to challenging circumstances in our day that is so important. If we have something negative happen, we may react and determine that the whole day will be bad. But we don’t need to throw up our hands saying this will be a terrible day but rather take the attitude found in Proverbs 4:18, “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”  Sounds like each day for a Christian is one to enjoy!

 Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope you wake with peace-filled thoughts. I woke with a praise song going over and over again.  This morning, I plan to go to Women’s Bible Study and then this afternoon we are having friends over for coffee and fellowship.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Our thoughts are very important for it says in Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it.” We are to guard our hearts aggressively and to choose our thoughts, filling our minds with what is good and true. What we think about has a direct effect on our body, especially our heart, for it communicates with our brain and influences our emotions and body. Dr. Don Colbert wrote on Crosswalk.com about how our heart rate is influenced by our emotions and attitudes and when we are anxious or frustrated and fearful our heart rate becomes erratic and disordered. But when we have positive emotions like appreciation, joy and love our heart patters have highly ordered patterns and a reduction of stress. Dr. Colbert shares an illustration that impressed me of how important our thoughts are. I will share his words.

Challenge for today: Quickly catch yourself when you start thinking negative thoughts and ask the Lord to help you think His thoughts!

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

We may all need reminders to be in God’s rhythm for our lives and the season he has us in. When I was at a gathering one day, the talk was about how tired we get of the different seasons for they had been in a store all decorated for Christmas with Christmas music playing and it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet. By the time Christmas actually arrives, it’s like ho-hum when it should be joyful expectation. When I was a child, we had real Christmas trees and we certainly didn’t decorate before Thanksgiving. When Al and I went to Saint Scholastica I was impressed about their way of absorbing more fully the Christmas message. There was a Christmas tree just before the entrance into the chapel and below the tree, there were added gradually one more symbol of the Christmas story. It wasn’t until Christmas eve that they put baby Jesus in the manger and there were days of anticipation beforehand.

Let’s not rush through life for it is too precious. When we die, what do we want people to remember of us by. Certainly not that we kept a perfect house, or we were always on time because we rushed everywhere; or that we were so dedicated to our job that we were rarely home. Jesus didn’t rush and sometimes people were healed as he went to minister to someone else, because he paused on his way. We have time to do all that God calls us to do. As it says in I John 2:17, “And the world passes away and disappears, and with it the forbidden cravings; but he who does the will of God and carries out His purposes in his life abides (remains) forever.”

Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy

If we are serious about being transformed into the image of Christ, we will arrange our life around Him and learn a life of love. We release our thoughts to go to Him and let ourselves be loved by Him. Actually, we will find we become more loving and experience His love as we abide in Him, not by hearing another sermon or reading another book. The Greek word for abide means to make our home in Him, remain or stay. In other words, it is where our minds seem to go when we are awake and have free time, where our thoughts seem to be rooted. It doesn’t seem to happen naturally but rather takes practice to continually abide in the Lord and be present to Him. It takes some retraining of our minds and hearts so we can learn to rest in Him. We will have to slow down and take time to live more in rhythm with Him and relate in ways beyond words.

Becoming like Jesus is a slow process and it something more done to us than what we do. It is God’s work in us. We surrender and He forms us into being more like Him and it is all grace. Before Jesus death he prayed in John 17 that we would believe and be one with Him and He in us and brought into complete unity. In a nutshell Comer is saying that spiritual formation is “the process of being formed into a person of self-giving love through deepening surrender to and union with the Trinity.” Let us become a person who is pervaded by the love of Jesus!

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

I loved what I read today from Psalm 116 as the writer is expressing love for the Lord because He hears his voice and listens. Yes, the Lord really listens to us! In fact, He even bends his ear towards us and listens intently. The Psalmist was in a troubled spot and sounds desperate and didn’t know which way to turn as death stared him in the face. But he knew what to do for He called out to God for help to save his life. He remembers how gracious and compassionate the Lord is and would make things right. Therefore, he could relax and rest in His presence.

Haven’t we all had times when we have felt weak or panic-stricken and we call out to the Lord to help us.  As we express our thankfulness to Him, we can give him our burdensome load and experience His wonderful peace. We might say, Lord, I feel so much lighter, now that you are carrying my load and I am set free to do your will.

Today I also read Psalm 57 when David is hiding from King Saul in a cave and felt like he was surrounded by fierce lions; but he is confident the Lord has heard him, and he desires to sing and give thanks and praise to the Lord.  Can we do that when we are in a tight place, be so sure the Lord has heard that we praise and worship Him, before we know the outcome. Let us place our full trust in Him.

 

How about our life, does it reflect the One we serve, and do we make a difference where the Lord has planted us? Have we a sense of purpose and want to bless others or do we seek whatever we think will make us happy? The truth is that when we only think of ourselves our world becomes very small, confining and disappointing. But, on the other hand, we experience deep joy when our focus shifts off ourselves and onto the Lord and others; it’s like our world enlarges, becoming very big as we empty ourselves to benefit others. We may feel a lightness and an openness that draws us closer to the Lord and others. Peter says in I Peter 4 that we should use our gifts to serve others and “whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies —in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”

Dare we ask ourselves today if we are in the place the Lord would have for us right now? DePaul said, “A Christian without a sense of mission is a stunted Christian.” Living at Northern Lakes is home to us and with 60 apartments in our complex, there is no limit to what things the Lord may call each one of us to do. We’ve all experienced what it is like to be the new person and so we try to be welcoming and help others find their way to fit in. When someone loses their mate, there are many others who have lost theirs and can relate and pray etc. Maybe you work next to someone who seems discouraged, and the Lord impresses you to do acts of kindness and speak words that uplift. Life becomes full when we are continually asking the Lord what He would want us to do in each situation. Sometimes it is just to lift up a prayer.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope you wake to a day of sunshine! Today I plan to do some food prep and go to my exercise class and a craft class and later Bible study.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

We have probably all seen strong willed children throwing temper tantrums to get their way and it tries the patience of not only the parents but all those within hearing distance. But I wonder how many of us are like them, only not so obvious, but yet determined to get our way. I was reading a devotion from Joyce Meyers, and she asks the question, “What is the first thing you turn to when you need to overcome a problem?” She goes on to say that whatever “that” is, that is where we are placing our trust.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy