Category: Sister Judy (Page 63 of 276)

  I read James Smith’s book, Embracing the Love of God, and he shows how we love others is a reflection of how we love ourselves. If we truly have come to know God’s acceptance of us, then we will be able to deal with others. We love others as we are loved!  As a child I remember memorizing John 13:35, “By this will everyone know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” When we do not accept others, perhaps it is because there are parts of ourselves that we also don’t accept. God never gives up on us and we should not give up on ourselves or on others either, no matter what.

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

  It made me think of the marriage relationship. When we become man and wife, it is the beginning of a life to be lived together in oneness, as we get to know each other in deep ways. We want to know our spouse’s heart, their mind, what they are thinking and feeling.  It is not like well, now I am married and just function independently as before, but now we are blessed to get to know one another in intimacy. That is what the Lord also wants of us. He wants us to sit in His presence, to have an intimate fellowship together. He wants us to choose Him above all others. His love is perfect, unlike ours, and it is unconditional so we can rest in knowing He will always love us, even when we fail.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

  I am reading a book about Jeremiah and God had a call on his life before he was born to be a prophet and call the people to live in relation to God. He didn’t feel qualified or ready, but God said he would be with him and tell him where to go and what to say by putting His words in his mouth. He gave him a big job to do, and Jeremiah didn’t compromise but spoke boldly. The people went to the temple and offered sacrifices, but they didn’t live out God’s ways and chased after other gods. Jeremiah told them what God had to say in Jer. 7:3-4, “Clean up your act –the way you live, the things you do—so I can make my home with you in this place. Don’t for a minute believe the lies being spoken here, ‘This is God’s temple, God’s Temple, God’s Temple!’”

   Could God also be saying to us, “Clean up your act, live no longer for yourself but for Me and God’s kingdom!” We can lift our hands to praise the Lord in church, recite the Lord’s prayer and then go out and live just like the world and take advantage of others etc. We are not to live on the basis of our outward image and appearances but be people of substance and truth. Just like in a healthy marriage, let us live in love and tenderness and listen carefully and walk in God’s love.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

I am writing early and hope you wake to a heart that is prepared to enjoy the day. As I have written of freedom my question for you this week is: How free are you? What things keep you from living in freedom?

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  It seems like each day in scripture and my devotional readings, it is all about freedom as we focus on the Lord and not on self. Today I read from Romans 8:6-8 (Message), “Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open into a spacious free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self, ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what He is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.”

  We have a friend who is full of the Spirit and prays daily that the Lord will use her. Her life is spent helping others in so many ways, often by checking on them, praying for them, and encouraging them. The Lord wants to use each of us and as I read this morning from Isaiah, He desires that we be open to the Spirit. When we do this, we can trust that He will fill our mouths with His words. As it says in Isaiah 50:4, “The Almighty Lord will teach me what to say, so I know how to encourage weary people. Morning by morning He will wake me to listen like a student.” Let us be free and open to listen to the Spirit that He can use us to bless others and bring glory to the Lord.

  Challenge for today: Start the day with asking the Lord to show you what things block you from living freely and give them over to Him.

  Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope you had a peace-filled weekend. Al and I had a bitter cold walk on Saturday so yesterday we did our walk in the underground. Great win last night for the Chiefs!   Today I have food prep to do and going to Aldi’s and my exercise class.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our families all knew and served the Lord?  Those who know the Lord carry a desire for their loved ones to know Him also and that one day will spend eternity together with Him. But maybe right now they are like the prodigal and have no interest in belonging to Him, and our hearts break. Many of you have written of your concern for family and friends who seem to be in that far-off country and are praying and waiting for them to come home to the Father. It may appear that they are traveling on a road that leads far away from the Lord, but we must pray and never give up hope. The Lord hears every prayer of ours and prayer is powerful. It says in James 5:16b, “The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.” The Lord hears the cries of our hearts, and we know He loves them even more than we do.

  Sometimes we may grow weary and lack even words to know how to pray for them. God, you see, you know where they are at, lead them to you!   Recently I read a prayer that Christine Perry wrote about such times and I will include part of it that you might want to make it your own prayer for someone you love.

  “Father, we are lifting our unsaved loved ones to you. Please soften their hearts. We ask that You take their hearts of stone and turn them into a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Please open their minds to understanding (Luke 24:45). We pray that You would grant us opportunities to speak with them, but more importantly that we would continue to come to you in prayer for them. God, You are not slack concerning your promises but are longsuffering toward us, unwilling that any should perish. Father, we ask that Your lovingkindness draw them to you (Romans 2:4). When we see them and interact with them, let it be Your love for them that they see. Help us be patient, kind, humble, and seek our loved one’s best. Help us to believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things. Help us to love them like You have loved us (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Lord, we cannot do any of this apart from You. Please give us Your strength. We love you. Thank you for hearing our prayers and being all we need in every situation. We commit our loved ones to Your loving and capable hands. Amen!”

Let us continue in prayer and not lose heart but faithfully hold them up to the Lord.

  Challenge for today: Pray in faith and hope today for a loved one God puts on your heart.

Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy

  Perhaps we don’t want to be like the Pharisees that wanted to look good but were not honest about their hearts. They saw in others what they would not admit in themselves. When we do that and aren’t willing to see what is in our deeper level, we lose connection with ourselves. We all need God’s grace to give up our self-protection and become vulnerable and aware of what is inside.

  As we are vulnerable, we will find that we will experience love and joy and hope for we become authentic and real. There is depth to our lives, and we are also better able to accept others for who they are…not perfect but real. I like the quote by Thomas Merton that I read: “The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

  I recently read an article by Alicia Searl who shares about the threats to marriage today. The enemy tries to destroy the marriage relationship which is the very picture of Christ’s love for His church. It is important for Christian couples to guard and protect the sanctity of marriage and not take the world’s view but see it from God’s lens as a holy union and offer our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies as a gift to one another. (Eph. 5:;22-30)

  We must spend time communicating with one another face to face, and grow in intimacy, rather than spending so much time on our phones, social media, and zoning out.  We can also get caught up in busyness and trying to juggle too many things into our schedules, with no time left to connect. Maybe it is time to pause and look over our schedules and build in time for each other. When our kids were little and tucked in bed, Al and I spent the last 20 minutes of the day sharing together of our day and any concerns and then praying together. Now we start our day in prayer together and then later walk the trail together and share as we walk. Communication is super important and even though men and women communicate differently, we need to listen to one another and seek to hear what each is saying without interrupting.

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

  Sometimes we may start out well on the way to transformation and then we seem to slow down and plateau or maybe get stuck. It can help to share with another believer how we are struggling and have them pray for us. We may have to renew our desire for transformation over and over again and tell the Lord we want to receive all that He has for us. He will answer and will begin to open our eyes and help us note what is happening on the inside of us. For the first time, we may become aware of patterns of our behavior and habits that distract us from His presence. We can ask Him to help us pursue Him and see things from His perspective. Of course, the next important step is to be willing to act on what He shows us and take steps of action in the right direction. I know for myself, there is often a time lapse from when He shows me and when I willingly take action. But sometimes I just pray for the will to be willing to take action. It helps to remember that He will not force us to change but simply invites us. Authors Gem and Alan Fadling write how we need to remember that God is inviting us into continual relationship because He desires our presence rather than thinking of it as a duty and a to-do list. Then it seems like we are working together in it and change seems to just happen as a result.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

  I am studying the prophet Jeremiah’s life and he was up front in speaking to the people and particularly the religious leaders and pointing out to them their hypocrisy and the need to repent. But what was Jeremiah like when he wasn’t addressing them but apart and alone? Eugene Peterson writes Jeremiah’s inner life was revealed as he prayed and made confession to the Lord. I must confess I might have gotten discouraged when speaking out like Jeremiah, and finding it wasn’t being received and then persecuted for what God told me to say. But what did Jeremiah do? He prayed and was passionate and had intimate exchanges with the Lord. He addresses the Lord and is real with Him and shares what he is experiencing as he faces loneliness and hurt and anger. In Jer. 15:15 he prays, “You know where I am, God! Remember what I’m doing here! Take my side against my detractors.” He doesn’t hesitate to tell how he feels but lived the truth of his message and took God at His word. He was honest with the Lord and expressed when he was angry and felt like God was just a mirage. He experienced self-pity but God tells him he understands his situation but won’t indulge him in his self-pity. He told him to repent instead and stand tall.

  Jeremiah speaks to the Lord what he feels, and we can honestly do that too. We don’t have to sugarcoat our feelings of frustration and anger, but we can pray and then listen to the Lord’s response as He restores us. Just like Jeremiah who prayed in secret, what we do in secret determines the soundness of who we are in public. Let us give ourselves to seek the Lord and to pray in every situation.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

  Maybe it is a question you would also like to answer  but be prepared for how the Spirit may open up things from deep places within. That’s what happened to me and as I walked with Al, I shared with him that God had showed me that there was a blockage to experiencing the Father’s love on a continual basis. Yes, there were times in the past I had experiences of knowing I was Abba Father’s beloved child and had times I felt His love poured out of me even to a stranger, and I knew it was Him, not me. But the Lord opened my eyes recently to help me see how many times that love was blocked by being over-responsible, even as a little girl.   Therefore, I felt like if I failed in something I was responsible for, I didn’t feel worthy of His love. But the Lord one day, just healed me and I knew when it happened as it was a most wonderful freeing feeling. Later I shared with Al, who is my spiritual director, and we spent some time reviewing what had happened in my past and praying. Sometimes we don’t even know or understand the blockages we have towards the Lord, but if we ask Him, He will show us and take us deeper.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy