Dear Ones,
Hope you are having a wonderful long holiday. We enjoyed time at the lake and seeing friends and also all the relatives at the picnic. A fun time and most of them will be traveling home today. I plan to go to Aldi’s and make cookies, fry fish and make chicken Alfredo etc.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
We all need to be accountable to others in the body of Christ for we have a tendency to wander off and at times stagnate. We are more likely to flourish when we are accountable and in fellowship with others who want to grow spiritually. I read today from Psalm 92 and verses 11-12 said, “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.”

I don’t know about you, but I would like to be fruitful and flourish just like a cedar tree that grows about a foot each year. If we are planted in the house of the Lord, we will be rubbing shoulders with other like-minded believers who also want to grow. We can connect and stimulate faith in one another and share together. We were never meant to go it alone but together we become knit with the Body of Christ.

Today we hear people say they don’t need to go to church and can catch a service when they want online. That is saying they don’t need fellowship and their spiritual gifts that I also read about in Romans 12 today will not get used. (prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving leading, and showing mercy)

Spiritual gifts are meant for the Body of Christ and when we are not gathered with others, those gifts get neglected and unused. We might say it is robbery. But I like how the Psalmist closes Psalm 92 by saying that the those who are planted in the Lord’s house will blossom, “grow tall in the presence of God, lithe and green, virile still in old age.”

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord if you are planted in the place He would have for you, and be committed and grow together with others.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy