Dear Ones, Hope you had a great weekend. We enjoyed daily walking the Paul Bunyan trail in the milder weather and have no snow now. Today I plan to do food prep, go to Aldi’s and my Exercise class and maybe company later.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
I am reading a book by two professors at Talbot School of Theology, Kyle Strobel and John Coe, and finding it insightful especially for times we may feel like we are in desert times of dryness and wonder what is happening. In their book, When God Seems Distant, they share how these times are part of God’s plan to draw us closer in our walk with Him. I love the illustration they use as they speak of our times of sensing the Lord’s presence being like wonderful time of floating on a lake and enjoying the beauty around us. But then one day, the lake dries up and we begin to see all the junk that has been buried in the mud beneath us. It is those broken things in our lives, our selfishness and unforgiveness, anger, etc., that we need to see and address. Our natural instinct may be to go away and hide from God, just as Adam and Eve did when they sinned. But instead we are called to draw near to God in truth. He doesn’t leave us to fix ourselves, but invites us into His love so our hearts can be purified.

The Lord desires us to give up our brokenness and rebellious ways. He seeks us out, and sometimes He finds us hiding behind things that outwardly seem to be so happy and put together, like a successful career or pride in our family. The enemy tries to get us to hide behind our cover of goodness rather than dealing with the real issues. When we try to solve our brokenness on our own, we get tired and resentful. Instead the Lord wants us to come to Him and to experience His forgiveness and love. We lay it all down before Him so that He can forgive and bring healing to our hearts. Paul said in II Cor 7:10, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

We are not to ignore our pain and brokenness. It was never ours to fix, but rather to give to the Lord. God is our source of healing and we are dependent on Him. Let us quit pretending everything is fine, when instead we need to go to the Lord honestly and in truth. Recently, when I went to a Bible study the leader started with admitting how much she had blown it in her impatience of caring for a loved one. But it was refreshing to hear her admittance of being less than loving rather than hiding it, so God could bring forgiveness and healing.

Challenge for today: Stop hiding from God and admit your guilt and fears as you come close to the Lord in truth.
Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy