Canaan's Rest

Canaan’s Rest represents a quiet place “set apart” for the purpose of hearing God's voice, growing in intimacy with the Lord, and being renewed in soul and spirit.

Month: October 2025

October 4, 2025

October 4, 2025 / / 0 Comments
Dear Ones,
Happy Weekend. Hope you have a peaceful day. There is so much beauty around us as we walk the trail and see the brilliant colors of the changing leaves. Today I am going to make pumpkin pancakes and bacon as it seems perfect for this fall season. Yesterday I used the zucchini from the church garden to make zucchini chocolate cake and salmon patties.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
There is always room to grow in the Lord and hopefully we desire to be more at one with Him.
It’s not important to impress others, but to please the Lord and follow after Him. If we are willing to spend time in the Word and prayer, we will find we become more sensitive to the Spirit’s promptings and also sensitive to the needs of others. Rom.13:8 says, “Owe no one anything except to love one another.” As we walk in love for the Lord, we will express that love by showing compassion for others.

We also grow through trials and suffering. God uses trials to humble us and allow us to share in His sufferings. I Peter 4:13-14 tells us to rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. I doubt that most of us welcome suffering at first, but gradually, as we mature in our faith, we aren’t so afraid of it and can even get to the place where we rejoice and thank the Lord. Underneath whatever we are going through, it is possible to experience deep joy when we offer up our suffering out of love for Him.

Hopefully, we can get to the place where we prefer God’s will to everything else, even when it involves hard things. Some go through a dark night of the soul and a purifying time to discover there is always more… more of Jesus, more love, more joy. No matter what we go through, it is nothing compared to heaven and seeing the Lord face to face. Let us not get sidetracked on our journey in life, but remember our goal.
Challenge for today: Whatever happens in your life, may you respond as Mary who was told she would bear the Son of God, “May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

October 3, 2025

October 3, 2025 / / 0 Comments
Dear Ones,                                                                                                                                                                            Hope you have a wonderful weekend and enjoy this lovely weather!  I plan to do food prep and clean the apartment and get in a lovely walk.
Devotions from Judy’s heart                                                                                                                                                  Some people are all talk and little action. I wonder if that is true of many Christians who can talk the good talk but it doesn’t lead to helping others and doing good deeds. Is it just talk? I am in the fourth quarter of my life and no longer have big groups for meals, for we live in an apartment now and no longer want to have a dozen things a day to attend. But I do want to grow in the Lord and ask the Lord often to help me finish well.

When I get together regularly with a friend, we have a question we contemplate, write about, and share together when we meet the next time. One such question was: “How has God used His refining fire on me?” Now we all face hard times when we have difficulties and recognize God is trying to get our attention. Maybe we have gradually grown lukewarm in our love for the Lord and He allows things to come into our lives to help us deal with our old nature. I hope we all want Him to burn away the chaff (those things that are not life-producing and weigh us down). When we ask the Lord to use His refining fire on us, He does it in various ways and circumstances to help us die to our flesh and refine us. We don’t always jump up and down with gratitude during the process, but later we see the fruit of His loving hand and are grateful.

We can probably all think of people God has put in our lives that He has used to refine us. Maybe they have gossiped about us, spoken lies or hurt us in some way. What is our response? Do we care more about our reputation and try to defend ourselves, or are we humble and give it to the Lord letting Him work things out in His timing? God can also use friends and family in our lives to refine us, speak corrective words and pray for us. They help us get on the path again and draw closer to the Lord. His kind of refining may seem more welcoming and healing, and God uses many ways to help get rid of our chaff.

Let us be open to all the ways God uses to burn off the things that distract us and draw us away from a deep relationship with Him.

Challenge for today: Thank the Lord for His refining fire and rejoice as it burns away more of your flesh nature! Malachi 3:2, “For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.”
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

 

 

October 2, 2025

October 2, 2025 / / 0 Comments
Dear Ones,
May you have a peace-filled day. We had a good Bible Study at church last night and over 30 came. Today I plan to cook and bake and go to Bible Study and have my hair done. It is also Donut Day here! Emoji
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Things, things, things! We all probably have more things than we need and run out of space to store it all. But as we grow in the Lord, we find the transformation of our desires. We notice we don’t have as many “needs” to make us happy and our desires begin to change. We no longer place our values on things that will pass away or will be out of season or style in a short time. When we are confident of the great love the Lord has for us, it transforms the rest of our life.

Growing up I was the first one to go to garage sales, craft sales, early bird specials, etc. and enjoyed all the bargains. Gradually though there is an accumulation of more than is needed and the luster of the purchases wane. Yes, we do have basic needs, but that is not the same as desiring the latest or far more than we need. The Lord has told us that we don’t have to be anxious about food or clothes that He will provide what we need, just as he does the birds of the air. He said in Matthew 6, to not to lay up for ourselves treasures on earth where moths or rust destroy, but lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, for where our treasure is our heart will be also.

When we are confident in God’s care for us and His love for us, we don’t need things to make us happy or feel loved. The truth is that all those temporal things can’t bring satisfaction that only God can. Importantly, do we serve God through what we have already been given? We may have titles and positions but do we use them to bring glory to ourselves or to the Lord? Let us seek joy in the Lord and find beauty in all He has made and give all the glory and honor to Him. Only what is done for Him will last.

Challenge for today: Pray that your heart will not become attached to what is temporal, but find the greater joy in the Lord.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

October 1, 2025

October 1, 2025 / / 0 Comments
Dear Ones,
Hope you have a wonderful day becoming better at loving yourself. We enjoyed time with friends yesterday and being at the lake. Today I have exercise, crafts, Bible study and hopefully some baking.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Jesus word to us is that we are to love Him, to love ourselves and to love our neighbors as ourselves. (James 2:8) Sounds simple but it isn’t always easy to separate self-love from just being selfish. So much of culture today is all about “me-ism”. This is good for me, me, me!  Of course, we can also err by doing so much as parents for our kids and putting our needs last that our children grow up very self-centered. That is not good either. Psychologist, Martin Padovani writes how we need honesty and a questioning of our motives to love ourselves without being selfish. We need balance to walk this fine line!

To love ourselves will include a healthy self-love, and self-respect and the experience of loving others. We learn to handle hurt and practice self-discipline and sacrifice. It also means we recognize our own needs before we can recognize the needs of others and have the strength to reach out to them. Like Padovani wrote, “Self-love turns inward, only to turn outward to others. Selfishness turns inward and remains there—and dies.”  We all need times to rest and get refreshed so that we can continue to give and help others. If we fail to do this we can burn out.

When we love ourselves, we should not be afraid to look at ourselves critically but be open to gain insight that can be constructive and positive. How can we mature if we ignore self-criticism rather than go on to grow, learn through our failures and handle change. Self-criticism is not the same as self-condemnation that leaves us feeling worthless. Self-criticism helps us to realize we can become better, grow and know ourselves better.

Let us choose to go on to emotional and spiritual maturity by loving ourselves and being open to self-criticism, not self-condemning.

Challenge for today: Write down a few ways you can love yourself better, which will enable you to love others as well.
Blessings and prayers and love, Judy
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