Dear Ones, Hope you had a great weekend! So much is happening in our world and we all need to be praying much. I am going to bake cookies and go to Aldi’s and exercise class this morning.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
The Lord is our Good Shepherd and leads us, but not always in the ways that we understand or would choose. In fact, sometimes we are confused after experiencing a time of great joy and awareness of the Lord’s presence and then experience His absence wondering, “Where have you gone Lord? Have you abandoned me?” Sometimes the Lord takes us from a place of abundance and joy which is called consolation, to a place of absence or desolation, and we feel rather lost in the dark. Without someone further along on the journey to help guide us, we may think we are going backwards in our faith walk, or maybe that we have done something wrong, or that we need to try harder. But it may be that the Lord is calling us to go deeper with Him.

One day I had just finished reading from Mark 4, about Jesus being by the lake with his disciples when crowd gathered to hear Him and he spoke to them in parables. The disciples didn’t get it, and couldn’t understand the meaning of the parables without Jesus teaching them. It reminded me of the words in a song: “Jesus calls us o’er the tumult of our life’s wild, restless seas; Saying, ‘Christian follow me.’”

When the Lord seems to change how He relates to us, it may seem like a restless sea, and yet He is teaching us in a more hidden way to follow Him so we need to pay attention. He calls the shots not us, and His presence can’t be judged by our feelings. In a way, it is like walking through the desert wilderness to the Promised Land. The Lord begins to unveil things in our lives that we shouldn’t ignore but give our attention to if we truly want to grow. It is a gift to see the truth so we can lay down those things that separate us, that we can be transformed more into His likeness. We may find we are self-centered and maybe unaware of some idols we have.

As the song continues: “In our joys and in our sorrows, days of toil and hours of ease, still He calls, in cares and pleasures, ‘Chrisitan, love me more than these.’”

Let us hear His call and prayerfully say or sing, “Give our hearts to your obedience, serve and love you best of all.”

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to help you accept both times of consolation and also desolation, and remember He is doing the leading and shaping of your life.
Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy