Category: Whispers (Page 127 of 164)

 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

We miss so much in life when we are full of words and race against the clock with activities. We rush from one thing to another and don’t leave spaces in our day to dial down and be quiet. I was reading what Paul Tournier, a Christian Doctor and counselor, had to say about the importance of silence and meditation. Silence is very important but not an end in itself. It is only a means to come closer to the Lord. In quietness we put ourselves in position to hear God speak but then we wait. Tournier often listened for a whole hour and practiced this spiritual discipline faithfully; there were times he found it difficult and felt he heard nothing. When he was interviewed, he shared how he waits in silence for God to stimulate his thoughts and to renew him. He often asked God to see people and their problems from God’s point of view, not his. During this time of silence, his mind was often flooded with things that needed to be done. But if he hung in there, thoughts might come of something God was asking him to do or to discover his underlying motive.

He said that intellectualism can be a hindrance and we must become like little children and to listen to God’s thoughts. He also cautioned others about imposing their thoughts on others and telling them what God’s will is for them. We cannot know what God’s will is for someone else! They must make their own discoveries. I get uncomfortable when I hear someone say, “Thus says the Lord, you are to quit your job and do such and such etc…” It is important that we hear for ourselves.

Once Tournier was contemplating giving up medicine and to become an evangelist but his wife was not in agreement. He spent months praying about it and listening and it resulted in him not doing either/or but a third way of integrating the psychological with the spiritual. He had patiently waited for God to guide him. God’s way is not always the same as our way, but better than ours.

So let us wait in silence on the Lord daily as it says in Psalm 40, “I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard my cry…and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.”

Let us not rush but quietly and patiently wait in silence to hear Him.

Challenge for today: Spend some time during your day to just quietly listen to the Lord.

Dear Ones,

Hope you had a great weekend. Al has a cough and cold so we had church at home yesterday; he is feeling some better now and we are thankful. Such times helps us remember to be grateful for our health and to pray for those who are suffering and live in chronic pain. Today I made egg dishes and food prep. studied, and went to my exercise class. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

How well do we know ourselves and how willing are we to learn more about what lies buried within our hearts?  It would be great if we were always flowing in the transformation process, and becoming more of who God created us to be. But we must admit we are not totally aware of how we need to change and are often blind to our faults. When we ask the Lord to remake us more like Him, we may be surprised at the people He uses to help us see what things need to change in our lives. We then have to be honest with ourselves to know if we are really open to change. 

 I read of how Francis Fenelon was a mentor and guide to a person asking for spiritual direction. He told him that God often uses someone who confronts us with the wrong they see in our lives and how we respond shows if we are serious about letting Him work in our lives. If we are deeply offended, then we know God has touched a sore spot and we need humility to admit that we are not all put together and need His help to fix what is wrong. It shows we are not dead in that area of our life. We don’t need to resist and protest that the person was harsh and insensitive, but rather thankfulness for what has been exposed.  We need to admit our failures and trust that He will cut out of our life what we have been hanging onto. Perhaps someone has spread rumors about us, and utter lies and we have no way of correcting what has been said. We can get upset and angry or we can realize that what God is after is for us to surrender our reputation. If we hang on to it, we will become bitter at the words spoken against us. But if we lay our reputation before him, He will cut away that which has become an idle, and we don’t have to be busy protecting it any longer. We won’t feel pain if we are dead to self in that area. When we get all ruffled, we know we are not completely dead. 

The battle goes on throughout our life between our flesh and the spirit. As Paul said in Gal. 5:16-17a (The Message).” My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feel the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness.” He exhorts them to be led by the Spirit and not to be dominated by our flesh nature.  God will give us grace to surrender our flesh and to live in freedom of the Spirit.

Challenge for today: The next time you feel offended, seek to know what isn’t dead within and surrender it.  

Dear Ones,

Hope you are enjoying the weekend. I worked at church all morning as we are having Teen Challenge choir coming tomorrow and then feeding them and their families and our own congregation. Now I am busy in my own kitchen baking  chicken and making soup etc. 
Devotions from Judy’s heart

I’m sure we’ve all been around bitter people and it’s not uplifting to sit in their negative atmosphere that seems to fill the space around them. But all of us are challenged in our own lives when people do hurtful things to us or say untruths about us, and how we respond. We have a choice whether we ruminate over it and grow bitter, or whether we are able to let it go and move forward.

Even at weddings, I love to hear a couple say they have found their soul friend and they pledge their lives to love one another until death due them part; but I also wonder how long it will be before their soul friend irritates them and they get hurt and angry. We all will have conflicts and how we deal with them is so important.

Early in our marriage, Al and I had times when we were rather silent with each other; you know, those times of hurt or anger. We didn’t have shouting matches but we tried to carry on life without addressing each other and giving the silent treatment. Gradually, we resolved the issues but if left undone, it could turn into bitterness and resentments. Through the years we have found it is best to admit our failures, ask forgiveness for our part in it, and pray together as we resume life together again.

Paul says to the church in Ephesians 4:31-32 (God’s Word), “Get rid of your bitterness, hot tempers, anger, loud quarreling, cursing, and hatred. Be kind to each other, sympathetic, forgiving each other as God has forgiven you through Christ.”

We may not feel like we harbor bitterness but what if we act cold towards another and secretly wish to get even with him. What about hoping they experience pain the same way they have caused us pain. Or maybe every time we think of what they have done to us our own joy disappears. Those are signs that let us know we need to forgive.

No matter what is done to us, or who is most at fault, let us not grow bitter but with God’s help forgive and move forward.

Challenge for today: Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to any person in your life that you need to forgive, and then forgive from your heart.

Dear Ones,

Hope you are having a great day. I woke up to a beautiful full moon shining in my window! This morning I made cherry cheesecake  and porkchops with apples. Also went to Aldi’s and downstairs for Donut day.  This afternoon is Bible Study here at the apartments. There are as many men, and often more men than the women that come! 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

No one is too broken to be beyond God’s grace to reshape and make new. He can take us, just like the potter, and form us into a new pot for the Lord’s use. We should never give up on others or ourselves but believe that God can take are marred lives and brokenness of our past and shape us into something very beautiful. But we have to repent of the things that keep us from God and be willing to  yield to Him, letting His hand remove those things. God told the prophet Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house and he saw how the clay pot that the potter worked on was spoiled but that he reworked it into another vessel. God said in Jeremiah18:5 (ESV), “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done?”

We have a choice if we will be willing to lay aside our stubbornness, our pride and ego, and be willing to be reshaped on the Potter’s wheel. If we yield to His hand, we become like spiritual clay that the Lord will shape perfectly for the very purposes He has for our lives.

We must remember our role as we are not the potter! We are simply ordinary clay without rights to choose what shape we are designed for. It is whatever pleases the potter and we stay on the wheel as long as He chooses. I’m sure we all have had times when the wheel seems to be going fast, and we want to get off and be in control again. But we need to trust the Potter that He knows what He is doing and it is in His timing, that He will take us off the wheel.

Let us see this whole process as a time of opportunity to grow and to be prepared for how He wants our clay pot to be of service for Him.

Challenge for today: Don’t resist the Potter’s hand but let Him shape you into the beautiful pot He has designed.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

We are all called to community life when we know the Lord and through it we experience more of the fullness of His love for us and for one another. What a witness it is to the world when they see Christians getting along and caring for one another, helping one another in our brokenness, and living together in harmony. Paul says in I Cor. 12: 25-26 (ESV), “that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” That sounds like a lot of vulnerability and the Body is a place for healing to happen as we become more whole.

Friends of ours lived in community for years and that meant accepting group standards and goals and doing a whole lot of dying to self. Even though we may not choose to be part of monastic life or some community experience of living together as they did, we are still to be part of a community where we can give and receive love, where we get healing for our wounds, where we learn to serve and be served.

Michael Casey, a monk in Australia, writes about what it means to renounce self-will and our narcissistic egocentric attitudes that keep people apart and keep us from living from our deep center. God calls us all to no longer live for ourselves but for Him and for others. Casey said that it may show up in letting our selfishness being replaced by sensitivity, conflict replaced with harmony, stalemate replaced by dialogue, obstinacy being replaced by adaptability, aggression replaced by patience etc. Within the church and other fellowship groups it will mean doing lots of listening on our part and trying to hear where the other person is coming from, even welcoming our differences. Respect is necessary especially when our views differ and we are to be polite and courteous without pushing our preferences.

All of us have been given gifts to be used for life in community and to share them and use them for His glory. We don’t need to be envious of other’s gifts but delight in them and also accept our own to be used to benefit others. Gifts that are given by the Lord belong to us all.

Yes, community is challenging, but perhaps it is the gift that most helps us grow deeply in our relationship to the Lord and what demonstrates to the world of His love.

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to help you be a loving open member of His community of love.