{"id":31928,"date":"2021-04-20T03:30:18","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T10:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=31928"},"modified":"2021-04-20T03:30:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T10:30:18","slug":"april-20-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2021\/04\/20\/april-20-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"April 20, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-parallax-none nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-background-position:center top;--awb-background-repeat:repeat-y;--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-background-image:url(&quot;https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/April-2021-Devo-Template.jpg&quot;);--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_6 1_6 fusion-one-sixth fusion-column-first\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;width:16.666666666667%;width:calc(16.666666666667% - ( ( 4% ) * 0.16666666666667 ) );margin-right: 4%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\"><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-1 fusion_builder_column_3_4 3_4 fusion-three-fourth fusion-column-last\" style=\"--awb-padding-top:40px;--awb-padding-right:10px;--awb-padding-bottom:40px;--awb-padding-left:10px;--awb-bg-size:cover;width:75%;width:calc(75% - ( ( 4% ) * 0.75 ) );\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>&#8220;Praise the Lord!\u00a0I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>Psalm 111:1<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Two Hands, Please!<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>My little, old kitty is becoming pretty high-maintenance the older she gets.\u00a0She wants to be brushed, fed often (and heartily), and given a lot of affection, which I&#8217;m happy to give.\u00a0But she never fails to remind me of my own sometimes &#8220;half-hearted&#8221; attention.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll bend down to give her a little pat with one hand, and it never fails: she looks up toward my other hand, as if to say, &#8220;Hey buddy, that hand&#8217;s not busy; get it in on the action, too!&#8221;\u00a0Only when I put <em>both<\/em> hands into the rubdown does she look content. Hmm&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I got to thinking of my own sometimes &#8220;half-hearted&#8221; attention and devotion to Jesus. I can praise Him in the <em>&#8220;assembly of the upright,&#8221; <\/em>even raising both hands, but is my <em>&#8220;heart far from Him&#8221;<\/em> (Matthew 15:8)? This happens more times than I care to admit.<\/p>\n<p>I have to stop and say to God, &#8220;I&#8217;m sorry, Lord.\u00a0My mind is all over the map!\u00a0Please help me focus on You!&#8221;\u00a0And in His mercy, He does!<\/p>\n<p>The beauty of walking with Jesus is that He never <em>demands<\/em> our worship.\u00a0And He most certainly doesn&#8217;t put us on a guilt trip when our feeble brains drift off.\u00a0But He does absolutely keep His eye on the &#8220;idols&#8221; of our hearts.\u00a0And so should we.\u00a0Far too often, something as mundane as picking out new carpet colors can sideline me for a week.\u00a0It can be a necessary task, but it can also be a trap if I&#8217;m not careful.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Lord Jesus, please help us worship You with &#8220;two hands&#8221; and whole hearts.\u00a0You deserve all the glory!\u00a0Amen and amen!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-2 fusion-flex-container nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1268.8px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-2 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:0px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-8iY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31929,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31928\/revisions\/31929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}