Dear Ones,

Hope you start your day well and follow what the Lord has for you. Al is soon off to men’s group, and I have cookies ready to bake. Today is Donut Day and Bible study, and errands to run.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  Oh, how easy it is to jump into the day with fear that we won’t get done all the things that are waiting for our attention at work or demands on the home front. The enemy whispers to us that we don’t have time to spend with the Lord and we better just run ahead and do what needs to be done. But so often we will find that everything takes us longer when we are going in our own power rather than if we had had just spent that time with Lord and given Him control. When we rely on the Lord and put everything into His hands, we walk in trust that God’s wisdom and His plan is far better than ours. Faith is not in a hurry for we wait in trust that the Lord will guide our steps.

 Pastor Mark Roberts who writes on Crosswalk.com shared his struggle with so much to do but remembers the scripture from Psalm 143:8, “Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you do I put my trust.” I know from experience that it is important to start my day with hearing from the Lord in His word and letting Him guide my day with His love. Roberts wrote a prayer that may be helpful for you as well, if you struggle with skipping time with the Lord to dive into your work.

 “Gracious God, you know how I am sometimes. I’m so focused, so preoccupied, so anxious about work that I skip my morning time with you. I know in my head how foolish this is. But my heart keeps saying, “Get to work or you won’t get it all done.” Forgive me, Lord, for thinking I can do my work on my own, without relying on your grace and guidance. Forgive me for neglecting my relationship with you. Forgive me for trusting more in my own efforts than in your amazing grace.

Dear Lord, help me, I pray, to spend time with you each morning. Help me to be reminded of your steadfast love for me. Help me to have renewed confidence in you so that I’m able to entrust everything to you, including my daily work.

As I trust you, Lord, teach me the way I should go at work. Show me what’s best. Refine my priorities. Grant me your wisdom. Help me to work, not with frantic anxiety, but with the joy that comes from knowing you are God, and you are always with me. Amen.”

Challenge for today: Pray this prayer each morning and see what God will do!

I had such an instance yesterday as I was dressing to go to Bible study and planned to wear my new tan boots that I bought last month with Christmas money. But I couldn’t understand it when I tried to put them on, for they were both for my right foot! Unbelievable! I knew I would have to make a trip to the mall later, and that the salesperson might profusely welcome me as he obviously couldn’t sell the other pair of left-footed boots. He recognized his mistake long ago but didn’t know who he sold the boots to. We had a good laugh as I was outfitted with a right and left boot, so I decided to shop since I was already at the mall. I discovered a store I had never been in before and it was overflowing with many secondhand things. I browsed around piles and piles of goods and was about to leave when I spotted a large floral box full of cards. I love, love, love cards and use many, not only for relatives and friends, but 11 birthdays just this month at our apartment complex. This box was only $10 and had dozens and dozens of cards and all categorized for occasions. I also found a wooden box to be used in organizing small medical things and smiled all the way home. I thanked the Lord for the mishap on my boots that had sent me to the mall to find the waiting treasures.

Of course, we don’t all know so quickly why a present disappointment can be a blessing in the long run, but we can still give it to the Lord when it happens. He knows! Sometimes He may be keeping us from something that would harm us or postponing something we are not ready for. When we are His children, we know He wants what is best for us and will help us to grow closer to Him. Rather than complain when things don’t happen like we had desired, we can place our hope and trust in Him. I read today from I Cor. 13:13, “Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of all is love.” When we really believe His love for us, we don’t have to have all our questions answered in the now, but we trust and know He is God and does for us what is best.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope you will have a wonderful day! I have Womens’ Bible study at church this morning and then friends coming for pie and coffee and fellowship this afternoon. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  As the New Year is here and the Christmas tree is put away etc., I like to do some deep cleaning of the cupboards and the closets and high places that are dusty. I can’t do it all in a day or two if I am to be thorough and it takes persistence to keep on going.

   It reminds me of spiritual housecleaning which is far more important, and Richard Hotchkin writes on Crosswalk.com, “Out with Clutter and Clatter.” I’m sure we can all identify with clutter in our homes, those piles that take up space and can become an eyesore. We had a neighbor years ago who had so much clutter, you couldn’t walk through her house and eventually it had to be bulldozed to the ground. Now we may not be that extreme but I’m sure we all have habits, relationships, comforts etc. that take up space in our hearts. Clutter is anything that gets in the way of our relationship with the Lord. Hotchkin goes on to also describe clatter as thoughts and words that don’t sound like Jesus; you know, complaining and negativity and thoughtless remarks. They need to go also, so we can make room for the Lord and all the new things He has for us as well. Sometimes what we hang onto might not seem bad in itself, but if it consumes our time and thoughts, it is clutter. I often reward myself, after writing a devotional by playing a quick game of Scrabble online; but if I spent the day doing that, it would be clutter and get in the way of my relationship with the Lord. For each of us the clutter and clatter may look different, but we all need to deal with it.

  I have news for you though; each time I finish one room in the apartment, I notice that other rooms and cupboards and closets need attention; it is a continuous project. But it is God’s grace and love for us that the Holy Spirit reveals those things in our lives so we might get rid of them and make room for Him. Paul says in II Cor. 5:17 that we are a new creation in Christ and the old has passed away and the fresh and new has come! Let us not hang on to the old that takes up space! Like the words of the familiar song that Emily Elliott wrote in 1864,” O come to my heart, Lord Jesus; there is room in my heart for Thee.”

  Challenge for today: Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you your clutter and clatter, and to get rid of it!

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

A glorious New Year to you! We didn’t make it to midnight and not even to the end of the Viking game as it was quite lopsided!  Today I plan to go to my exercise class, do food prep and put our Christmas tree away etc.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Happy New Year!! Hope you have been seriously thinking about fresh goals for 2024 and are writing down some things you may want to change and do differently in this new year. I spent some time before New Year’s doing just that and of course, it will not be the same as yours for God’s plan for each one of us is different and unique. Hopefully each of us will want to relate to the Lord in a deeper way and draw closer to Him in 2024 and give special attention to how He is speaking to our hearts.

Challenge for today: Try a new method when reading the Word and be open and respond to the Holy Spirit.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Soon we will be entering a new year and may we prepare our hearts for all that God has for us. I plan to go to Aldi’s and clean the apartment and also write down some goals for the New Year.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

A New Year is just on the horizon, and we have likely read authors who share the importance of setting goals so that we can better get our focus on the Lord and His plan for our lives. I personally like to end the year by reflecting on what God has been working in me this past year and praying for what He has for me in the New Year and setting goals. Jennifer Slattery shares that it’s important to pray before even writing down goals so that we seek the Lord’s will and not our own. Sometimes our circumstances have radically changed since our goals were set last year, like a move or a new job or a baby, and we need to reset them.

Challenge for today: Take some time to reflect on your life in 2023 and then surrender to what the Lord has for you in 2024.

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

Recently we had our kitchen floor replaced and in the process the workers had to remove our stove, frig, washer/dryer and dish washer out while working on the floor. We were to be gone while this took place and when we came back it was all beautifully done. But I was surprised at some items they put on the counter like dryer balls, masks, dusting cloths that must have dropped behind the dryer and even a broiling pan that was stuck between the stove and frig. When I saw them, it was if the Lord was saying that we have many hidden sins that don’t show for most people to see but He knows they are there. Sometimes it is willful sins of which we are aware and want to remain hidden to the eyes of others, but other times it may be sins of omission when we have neglected to do something He has spoken to our hearts to do.

We daily need to confess our sins for as it says in I John 1:9, “If we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—He won’t let us down; he’ll be true to Himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.“ May He wrap us in His white robe of righteousness!

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to show you your hidden sins and to deal with them, and then to cleanse you and clothe you in His righteousness.

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope your Christmas was a time of joy! Our hearts are full as we had a wonderful time together with family. Today will be catch up and the house is already full of aroma as I started a meal in the oven.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  When I read the book, Forgive and Forget by Professor Lewis Smedes, I found he goes deeper into what true forgiveness really is and what it is not. It doesn’t seem fair that we should forgive someone that has done something so horrible as a Jewish man who was asked to forgive a Polish soldier. He was in a concentration camp and taken to the bedside of one of the German wounded soldiers who was dying. The soldier wanted to ask forgiveness of a Jew before he died, for he had crowded 200 Jews into a house and then blew it up and shot all who tried to escape. It doesn’t seem fair for someone to happily kill so many people and then simply ask for forgiveness so he can die in peace.  We may ask ourselves, why do we have to forgive someone and then suffer again by also blessing the person?

  But the alternative to forgiving is when we refuse to forgive and want revenge, to get even in some way. We want them to experience the pain they caused us. But the truth is we can never really even the score. When we retaliate, we may think we evened the score but the other person feels his pain is greater and so it never balances out. When we harbor hate it will sap our strength and energy and leave us weak and in pain.

Challenge for today: Forgive without weighing the scales but out of gratitude for what the Lord has

 forgiven you.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

  He wants our receptivity to listen to Him as He speaks, to let Him love us and also love others through us. If we are His sheep, we should be listening for His voice but often we have unbelief that blocks His voice to us. Perhaps we find ourselves cold or aloof to the sound of His voice because we are listening to the music of the world in our ears. We miss out on so much of what the Lord desires to give to us.

  I’m sure we have all had times we are sharing our hearts with a close friend or spouse and find that they are not really listening. Their mind is off somewhere else, and they are missing what we are trying to communicate. Think of how often the Lord is wanting to pour out His love on us and we disregard what He is saying because we are not really listening. There is a whole spiritual world about us and we often choose to ignore it. I read today a quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Christian faith is a grand cathedral, with divinely pictured windows. Standing without, you see no glory, nor can imagine any. But standing within, every ray of light reveals a harmony of unspeakable splendors. “

  Let us not stay aloof but draw close to the Lord and experience the reality and splendor of His presence. As it says in James 4:8, “Draw close to God and He will draw close to you; Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Happy Christmas morning. We will be packing up the car to go to the hotel in the cities for 2 days to be with a host of relatives (last year it was 40 plus!) We come from several states and have a feast for supper and then each family shares about the blessings of the past year in their families. Some go swimming afterwards and the rest of us eat some more and enjoy catching up. I won’t be writing again until Wednesday as my computer is staying home!

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  Today is Christmas morning and may you have incredible joy as you celebrate the birth of our King and Savior. Whether we are with lots of family or alone today, we worship and celebrate the One who came, who died, and rose again and now is preparing a place for us in glory. Receiving Him and knowing Him is the most important decision we will ever make, and no matter what happens here in life, when we know Him, we have everything.

Thank you that in your presence, we experience joy to the max! Thank you for making that available to us through the birth of your Son, Jesus! His birth is the reason we seek out experiences that bring us joy during this season, even if it’s only temporary joy! I pray we use this Christmas season to prompt us to acknowledge and engage with our true source of joy–your presence. Thank you for making lasting joy available to us. Thank you for every good gift! Lord let us spend time abiding in your presence, and, Lord, let us be evidence to unbelievers that you are their only hope for true, lasting joy! Let it be undeniable that we have been with you and thank you for being with us! In Jesus’ name, amen.

Challenge for today: Share the Lord with someone who may not know Him.

Blessings on your Christmas Day and prayers and love, Judy