Dear Ones,
Hope you are having a peaceful day. I have been busy wrapping prizes to send, and made 2 spaghetti G.F. pies and our favorite bars. I am sorry that so many of you are not getting my devotional from our website this week. I don’t know why that is but I will send this the old way and then see if our son can fix what the problem is. Whenever you don’t get a devotional you can let me know or go to http://www.canaansrest.org/whispers and they are all there. You can read the ones you missed this week. Sorry.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Do we live our lives with fear or like children who have a Heavenly Father who we can rely on and hears us? Are we resilient or do we let our problems and the troubles of our world come between us and God, robbing us of joy? I was reading today from the devotional book, “God Hears Her”, and Joanie Yoder writes about Martin Luther’s wife and how she responded to a time of despondency Luther was going through. One day when Kathryn got up, she decided to dress in black mourning clothes and Luther questioned her as to who died. She said “God.”  When asked how she could possibly say such a thing, she replied, “I’m only saying what you are living.” You can bet that straightened Luther up in his thinking and changed his attitude; he realized he was acting as if God was not alive and able to watch over them. Instead he began to praise God and his perspective began to change. Perhaps we live much the same way as Luther did when we get overcome by worries, forgetting that our God is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-wise. He created the universe and is certainly able to handle everything that concerns us. The Psalms are such a wonderful praise book and can help us as well, especially when we feel overwhelmed by circumstances in our lives. David wrote many of the Psalms and he had plenty of problems plaguing him and often had to flee for his very life.  When he was captured by the Philistines, he said in Psalm 56:3-4 (The Message), ”When I get really afraid I come to You in trust. I’m proud to praise God: fearless now, I trust in God. What can mere mortals do?” Even when the situations around us feel threatening, even when we flub up too, we can turn to the Lord in trust and praise Him. Then may we say as David did in verses 12 & 13, “God, you did everything you promised, and I’m thanking you with all of my heart. You pulled me from the brink of death, my feet from the cliff-edge of doom. Now I stroll at leisure with God in the sunlit fields of life.” Let us not fear but trust! 
Challenge for today: When you are afraid, go to the Word and praise Him with a trusting heart.”
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy