Category: Whispers (Page 57 of 164)

  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

Dear Ones,

Hope you had a relaxing weekend and kept warm! Thankful for our underground garage as we watched the temperature keep dropping as we went to church yesterday. Today we are going to the funeral of a friend who is now with the Lord and no longer suffering.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  There are so many scriptures on serving and giving to others and I believe it is not only for the other person receiving but our own hearts need to be opened and stretched. So much today is all about me, me, me, and following our hearts of what makes us happy, but something beautiful happens when we put God first, others second and ourselves last. Jesus said in Luke 6:38, “Give generously and generous gifts will be given back to you, shaken down to make room for more. Abundant gifts will pour out upon you with such an overflowing measure that it will run over the top! Your measurement of generosity becomes the measurement of your return.”

Challenge for today: Don’t hold back when prompted to give or serve and do it out of love for the Lord and others.

Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Happy weekend! Hope you are keeping warm during this cold weather. Today we are going to celebrate our daughter’s birthday and the meal is ready for the oven and cake all frosted.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  Pray, pray, pray! Today our children and grandchildren are being exposed to things that we never even imagined when we were young. Satan is trying to deceive them and to pull them away from the Lord and we need to pray fervently. Beth Ann Baus writes several prayers to protect our children, and we all need to hold them up in prayer so that they can stand against the enemy’s attacks.

Challenge for today: Be a good listener to your grandkids Pray daily for them and use every opportunity the Lord sends your way to speak into their lives what God has for them.

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Happy weekend to you! Colder temperatures but not any more snow yet.  Today I am cleaning and baking bread and just made a veggie stir-fry. Tomorrow Ann and Leif are coming and we will celebrate Ann’s birthday early.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

I am a homebody and even though I love to take vacations and trips to see our kids and grandkids, I am always glad to get home again. Home feels comfortable and is familiar and peaceful. I noticed the contrast as I am reading from the book of Jeremiah and he is writing to God’s people who have been uprooted and exiled to Babylonia which was 700 miles away, across a desert. No hope of returning soon and Jeremiah prophesied that they would be there for 70 years before God brought them back home again. They had to leave all that was dear to them, and live among strange people with different customs, in a hot climate, with everything unfamiliar. They did not want to be there and some of the prophets gave them false hope that they would return soon so they didn’t give attention to working the land etc. but complained of their plight. But Jeremiah sent a message to the people there and told them to make themselves at home, have families, plant gardens and enter their new life instead of complaining.

Challenge for today: When change comes unannounced into your life, welcome what God will do in your new situation and draw close to Him.

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope your day is filled with love and peace. Al will be going off to meet with a couple men, and I plan to be busy in the kitchen and also go downstairs for donuts and later to Bible Study.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  Our life is brief as we are on this earth such a short time. We want our life to count, and at times we probably all wonder if we really make a difference. It’s important that our life is lived by faith in the Lord and shaped by the Word and that we listen to the Holy Spirit; otherwise, we wander aimlessly about like a person without a compass or a mission.

Now what we feel God is saying to us, does not always make sense to our natural mind and we have to decide if we are going to listen and obey or go by our natural instincts. I can only imagine how Abraham felt when God told him to pick up everything and go to a land that He would show him. He didn’t name the land so telling Sarah about the move must have been doubly difficult. But he obeyed even though he didn’t understand at the time.

  Recently I woke in the night and some words came to me for someone who is close to leaving this earth. It was distinct words, “This is a holy time, and I am preparing a place for you and will take you unto Myself that where I am you will be with Me forever.”  That was it and I went to my desk and wrote in the dark so I would remember it. The next morning, I got a card and wrote the message down and then put it on the door of the recipient. I had not been thinking of this man before going to bed, but I felt God was speaking in the night and I needed to be obedient. Then yesterday afternoon when I was downstairs for Crafts, I got the news that this man had died in the morning and is now with the Lord who prepared a place for him.

Challenge for today: Each morning when you wake, ask the Lord what He has for your day and obey.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

I am reading the book of Jeremiah and he wrote down what God spoke to him to preach to the people for 23 years. They were not good listeners for they had wandered away from God, and Jeremiah was scoffed at and put in prison. Even then he had his friend Baruch write down what he dictated to him and it could be read to the people. Earlier when Josiah became King of Judah, he had the Book of the Law read to him. He tore his clothes in repentance when he realized how far they had strayed from God and even worshiped other gods. He humbled himself before the Lord, repented and then read the Book of the Covenant to the people. He promised to keep His commandments and statutes with all his heart and soul also and covenanted before the Lord to follow His ways.. (II King 23) The people all joined in as well.

But Josiah’s son, Jehoiakim, did not respond in the same way when he became king. When itt was told him that Jeremiah’s scroll had been read by Baruch, he commanded that it be sent for and read. But His response was one of ridicule and he took his penknife and every few columns read he would cut them off and toss them into the fire. He didn’t take the word seriously and joked and ignored the truth of the words. As a result, God spoke that his corpse would be thrown in the street and left unburied, exposed to the sun and freezing night. (Jer. 36)

What a difference in the responses made to the Word! Josiah obeyed and helped the nation return to God and they were blessed. Jehoiakim scoffed at it, and died as the nation went into exile. God’s word is powerful and it can’t be suppressed, discarded or destroyed and it is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb. 4:12). May we not make light of the Word but read and meditate on it and let it do its work in our hearts,

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy