Dear Ones,
Hope your heart is full as you celebrated the wondrous gift given to us in Jesus. It has been snowing and snowing. It started when we were in church yesterday morning and continued all day and not sure how much of the night. I’m not sure if I will get to my exercise class but I plan to cook and bake and make Al pumpkin pancakes!
Devotions from Judy’s heart
We have recently celebrated the event when God’s love came down to us in the birth of His Son, and this was before we were able to respond and show Him our love. When you think about it, maybe we all struggle with believing the extent of His love and learning how to be really loved. We know Jesus came, left His home in glory and died the cruelest death for us to show us how much he loved us. He gave all, and we are able to love only because He first loved us. (I John 4:19) How we need to let that soak in so that our actions will be done out of the outflow of His love into us.

Isn’t what everyone is really looking for: to know they matter and are loved? In the book of Ephesians, it seems Paul has concern that those in the church would know this also, for in Eph. 3:17-19 he says when he prays, “that Christ will live in you as you open the door to invite Him in. And I ask Him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.”

To know and experience His love is simply wonderful but it is not to end there, for we are to overflow in love for others. Jesus especially loved and identified with the poor, ministering to them, and when we reach out to them, we are His hands and feet. Recently, Al and I visited a person who has so little in the world’s goods but rich in faith, we went away realizing we are the poor ones.  May each of us experience the deep joy of sharing what we have with others.

Challenge for today: Give out of the overflow of God’s love as the Holy Spirit directs you, even when it hurts.
Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy