Category: Whispers (Page 88 of 164)

Dear Ones,

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  Loneliness is certainly rising in our culture today and so many feel disconnected but don’t know how to have meaningful relationships. I am reading a book by Todd Hall who is an author and a Psychology professor at Biola University where he teaches several courses. He writes about how we all long for a deep sense of meaning if we are to make sense of our lives. So few know how to find that meaning and may go about it in unhealthy ways.

  Perhaps we have all felt emptiness at times when we fail in making connections with others; it is sad but people today are lonelier than ever and having a harder time to socially and spiritually connect. Many feel isolated and empty and lack the feeling of belonging.

   Hopefully, as we go through life, that we desire to connect first of all with the Lord and then with others He has put in our lives. We all need other people and as Todd says, to know and be known, to love and be loved.

  Loneliness is growing in epidemic proportions in the breakdown of families and most often children are caught in the cracks to fend for themselves. They miss seeing firsthand what it is like to have healthy relationships and don’t have a secure base from which to view life. We don’t have nearly as much face -to-face contacts today for I have heard others describe their best friend who they have never met but only are known from texting.

    I grew up in a neighborhood where we did so much together with parties, parades, picnics, and  caring for one another.. In our church we had many close relationships. But if we don’t let others into our lives then we build walls and block God our of our lives too.

   Todd says that we can try the will power approach, or the intellectual approach or the spiritual-emotional high approach but we will still not feel connected with God and others. We need the relational approach for God made us for relationship with Him and with others. He wrote that we are loved into loving by God and others in our lives. We love others only because God first loved us. (I John 4:19). May we see how our implicit relational knowledge transforms how we relate to God and others in our lives.

Challenge for today: Open your heart in new ways to the love God desires to pour into you.

Dear Ones,

  Hope you wake to a new day of peace and time to reflect! I am doing food prep this morning and soon off to Aldi’s and exercise class. This afternoon is crafts and tonight is Bible study!  A full day!

Devotions from Judy’s heart

 Time seems to fly! The older I get the faster it seems to go and I am no hurry to flip the calendar to a new month.  Sometimes I want the clock to stop and just savor the time to do the things that one day I won’t be able to do any more when I am aged.

   It’s good for all of us not to function on automatic pilot but to welcome each day as a new day with many possibilities that God has in-store for us. As King Solomon said in Eccl. 3:1, “There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on earth.” Of course, that is on God’s time table!

   One of our friends, Connie, whom I have written about, has been in the hospital since Christmas Eve with Leukemia and in a hard fight for her life. She is inspiriting as she is receiving many treatments but making the most of each day that she has before her. She is surrounded by family, friends, priests, and health care workers and her light shines so brightly. Her daughter recently wrote:       “Mom told us today “If God had asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year even before I got sick, I would have responded, more time with my family and to reconnect with my kids in a powerful way because even though we are close, I want to be closer, being with God alone and getting to know his heart and love more like he does and live in the fullness of the vocation of marriage in a very holy way.” She then stated that all these desires of her heart are being met right here in this hospital, room 512 she as always never ceases to amaze me with her beauty, strength, faithfulness, and love for others!

   Praying for Connie, has made me more aware of what is really important in life and not to put things off, to savor times with family, to invite others to be His children, to make a difference in the short time we have on earth. Let us all not waste time on trivial things that will pass away but living each day for the Lord as our homecoming day draws nearer!

  Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to help you use the time you have to walk in His presence and power, and make a difference!

Dear Ones,

   Hope you had a great weekend! We enjoyed church and hearing the guys from Teen Challenge share how God has changed their lives. We had a meal afterwards for them and the congregation and time to hear some of their stories. The afternoon wasn’t quite as great as the Vikings lost! 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

   I have always admired Esther who had a rough start in life but didn’t let that be a hindrance to all that God had for her, which included becoming queen and saving her people. I don’t imagine she had a lot of say over the events in her life for she was an orphan and taken in by an uncle. She probably didn’t have those feminine touches of a caring mom but she must have felt very thankful for an uncle willing to take her in.

   To top it all, Esther was in the foreign land of Persia and had many things against her like being a Jew, displaced, and a woman of that time with no rights. But the Lord saw her and used her in ways that must have surprised even her. She was very beautiful and noticed by the king’s servants and brought into the King’s harem. I don’t know about you, but I would rather be the one wife of a man who loved me, than one of many wives of a king who only saw me on occasion. But Esther had very little to say about her life and was obedient and did all that her uncle told her to do, for she must have loved and respected him as a man who knew God. 

   But even though decisions were made for her she had faith in God and was led by the Lord. The crunch time came when she had to go before King Xerxes and plead for the life of her people.  In doing that she put her life on the line, and if the king didn’t put forth his septer, she would have been killed. But she did a wise thing and called on her Jewish people to fast and pray with her, rather than trying to do it all alone. It resulted that she was given much wisdom to bring down wicked Haman and also to save her people. I wonder how Esther reflected on all that the Lord did through her and I’m sure she was thankful that she listened and obeyed. As it says in Eph. 3:20 (ESV), “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think or imagine, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory…”  

  Let us also be willing to let God use us as He wills and to listen and obey His instructions.

Challenge for today: Whatever you are facing in your life right now, go in His power, and don’t hesitate to ask others to pray.

Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy