More From Judi Murphy

Though I have been blogging and writing inspirational articles for almost fifteen years, the devotional I wrote for The Upper Room was my first published writing in a devotional magazine. It’s very exciting!

Writing has always been my passion, and through my blog I attempt to bring glory to God in the commonplace situations we all experience. For many years before, however, I was not writing, and I certainly wasn’t attempting to bring glory to God. My life was all about keeping up appearances and trying to measure up to what I thought was perfection. I put so much pressure on myself and those around me. Expectations were subjective: if I could meet them, I tried to be sure everyone else did as well; if I couldn’t, I lowered the bar or lapsed into self-loathing. It was a crazy time. But God is so merciful! Even when God completely tore down my “house of cards”—all of my rules and pretenses, all of the relationships I was trying to maintain so I could appear “perfect”—God was beginning a comprehensive remodeling project on my life. At the time, it hurt so badly I thought it was because God was angry with me or didn’t love me. But just the opposite was true!

Someone once said, “When God doesn’t have your attention, he’ll disturb what does.” I realized that is exactly what God was doing around the time I describe in my devotional on Psalm 37:4. Things seemed to be going wrong at every turn. Looking around at others, I thought I saw them receiving blessing after blessing, but nothing came to me. The truth was, my focus was on the gifts, blessings, peace, but The Giver didn’t have my attention. But God got to work and taught me two very important truths: God loves us, and God is working all things for our good if we are his. Choosing to believe those truths changed everything for me. First of all, it secured my confidence in God, not in my assumptions or standards. Secondly, I stopped looking around at others and kept my attention on God instead. Lastly (and I think most importantly), God became my greatest delight! Every desire of my heart has been given to me: a Father who loves me beyond measure and an eternal life in which to serve and enjoy him! The bonus blessing is that I get to do that through the passion of writing.