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.

Category: Sister Judy (Page 1 of 244)

February 7, 2025

Dear Ones,
Hope you have a wonderful weekend! I plan to spend time in the kitchen and make some of Al’s favorite dishes. He seems better and we are thankful.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Right now, my husband is sick and I am hoping not to get whatever he has; we are doing all we can to help his body get well. Maybe as you are reading this you have a different kind of illness and you feel empty, depressed, and without hope. God’s love is the one thing that can restore our lives and give us joy and peace and hope and that comes through relationship with Him. If you have never received Jesus into your heart, He invites each of us to confess our sin and to ask forgiveness and then He does the rest; He forgives us, fills us with His Spirit and pours out His love into our hearts. When we respond to Him it begins a walk in love and our lives are forever changed.

We will also find that along with a changed heart, our mind gets renewed, and love is now the force that directs our actions, thoughts and words. We become joined with other believers and receive encouragement through fellowship together. Since we know we now belong to a family of believers, we no longer feel alone and depressed. We practice love and seek to find ways to encourage others. Paul said in Romans 5 that we have been justified by faith and have peace with God for God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. This love is not just a feeling, but it is a person, God is love! If you want to know more of what the love is like read I Cor. 13 for it is enduring, patient, kind, not self-seeking and bears up under anything.

Let us ask ourselves what is our greatest love? Is it for Jesus or is it for pleasures, wealth, fame? Hopefully it is for Jesus, and we are experiencing His selfless love that He has placed inside of us that enables us to reach out to others and to know them and love them. I am sure we will also find that in the process we are filled with indescribable joy and peace.

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to be first place in your life and share His love however He leads you.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

February 6, 2025

Dear Ones,
Hope you have a joy-filled day. Al is sick so someone else is doing the Bible study today.  I plan to surprise him with pumpkin pancakes and bacon today. I am also loading him up with lots of vitamins and healthful foods. I have my treatment this morning and I think my feet are getting better. PTL! I
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Each day it is important that we are led by the Spirit and not just doing our own thing. He desires to be the initiator of our actions rather than us off running on our own and then say, “By the way Lord, bless what I am doing and hope you will tag along.” No, we must wait to know what God is up to and agree to join in with His plan. Proverbs 16:1 and 9 say, “Mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word…We plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it.”

Jesus Himself was willing to wait for God’s plan for ministry. I wonder if it was easy for him to wait 30 years, working as a carpenter with his dad, before He was launched out to do His Father’s miraculous work. But He waited for His Father’s timing that brought marvelous results! In our lives when we let Him set the agenda and do things His way, some surprising things happen that that wouldn’t otherwise happen. We may all wonder what things we have missed by jumping in too soon with our plans or delaying what God has asked us to do and realize too late that the timing is off.

There have been times when we have planned to visit friends or our kids and grandkids, and then at the last minute we have to change plans. This is such a time as we planned to go to Kurt’s tomorrow in KS for the Super Bowl and have to cancel as Al is sick and has that bug that seems to be going around. We have prayed and hoped but Al is not well enough to go and we don’t want to bring unwanted sickness either. Disappointing but we learn that God’s timing is best, and it is perfect, even if we never find out why we are at times blocked from doing what we think are great plans.

Let us desire to know the Lord’s plan for each day and to see the mark of His hand in all that we do.

Challenge for today: Start your day out in prayer and asking the Lord to set your agenda.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

February 5, 2025

Dear Ones,
May you wake to a peace filled day. This morning, I plan to bake cookies and go to my exercise class and then craft class this afternoon.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Recently while having my quiet time with the Lord, the song began playing in my heart that comes from the scripture Psalm 139:23-24, which David wrote. (verse one)
  1. Search me, O God, and know my heart today,
    Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray;
    See if there be some wicked way in me;
    Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.
  2. I praise Thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin;
    Fulfill Thy word and make me pure within;
    Fill me with fire, where once I burned with shame;
    Grant my desire to magnify Thy name.
  3. Lord, take my life, and make it wholly Thine;
    Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine;
    Take all my will, my passion, self and pride;
    I now surrender, Lord, in me abide.
  4. O Holy Ghost, revival comes from Thee;
    Send a revival, start the work in me;
    Thy Word declares Thou wilt supply our need;
    For blessings now, O Lord, I humbly plead.

You have probably sung this song written by James Edwin Orr in 1936 after a revival took place when he preached in New Zealand. He was only 24 at the time and so many people came to know the Lord that he had to have midnight services to accommodate all of them. The key was the public confession of sins, and believers reconciling with one another. The revival spread across this whole nation as the Holy Spirit moved with great power. As James was leaving to go home, 4 Maori girls sang to him their native song of farewell. He was taken by the tune that he wrote the words of this song on an envelope and later it became the very song we sing today.

Perhaps these words can touch us deeply today as we ask the Lord to search our hearts and cleanse our very thoughts. He wants to set us free and fill us with His love, but we need to surrender each day our will, passion, self and pride. May revival start with us and spread far and wide.

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to see your own heart’s need for cleansing and to send His purifying fire to burn away all that is not of Him.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

February 4, 2025

Dear Ones,
Hope you have a day of contentment! I often thank the Lord during the day for He has blessed us so much. I especially am thankful for our warm apt. on cold days. I have Women’s Bible Study later this morning and plan to do some food prep first.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
How many of us are content and would say we have enough, and we don’t need more to be happy. I would suspect that most Americans have what Oliver James called the Affluenza virus, meaning “the placing of high value on money, possessions, appearances and fame.” We think we must have lots of goods and fame to be happy, but it is quite the opposite. We become more selfish and emotionally distressed as we store up more. Contentment can be had with a simple life since more does not equal happiness.

I read about avarice which is called one of the deadly sins and defined as the insatiable desire for more than we need. Most Americans would say they are weighed down by all their many goods that leave them with bursting closets and drawers. We have so much more than we need. Scripture warns us about riches and the love of money, and wealthy King Solomon who had everything said, “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, or he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.” (Eccl. 5:10} Scripture has over 2,000 verses on money, so we need to pay attention lest it rule us rather than be a tool to help us in giving to the needs of others.

We all have need of shelter, food and safety but when is enough, enough? There is a lot of greed as people desire more material possessions and money and what other people have.  Advertising on TV puts longing in our hearts that we never would have otherwise. So how do we guard against “Affluenza”?  What happens to just being satisfied with our needs being met? We need gratitude! Gratitude is realizing we have received help and gifts that God has given us and we are thankful. All that we have is a gift from God and if we have abundance, doesn’t it make sense that we share. The more we earn the more we can give. Let us be generous and we will experience that giving does actually make us happier than receiving.

Challenge for today: Uproot avarice from your heart and give generously without expecting in return.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

February 3, 2025

Dear Ones,
Hope you had a great weekend. We took in the movie, Green and Gold, at our nearby theater and enjoyed it. Our pastor will especially like it as it has to do with the Packers. This morning, I am going to make egg dishes and go to Aldi’s and exercise class.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Are we self-sufficient or do we depend on the Lord in all our circumstances? Hopefully it is the latter for we were meant to live our lives in complete dependence on the Lord, not on ourselves. Even though we may hear a teaching about depending on Him or read about it, or see examples of it, it still is not easy to practice. Most people in our culture prize ourselves with being strong and self-sufficient and not needing others, or even the Lord. But the Holy Spirit wants to help us to be humbly dependent on the One who designed us and follow His pattern for our life. After all who would know better than the One who uniquely created us in the first place.

Now I would like to learn in a classroom what it means to be fully dependent on the Lord rather than in life’s circumstances but most of the time we learn through adverse times. Troubles come and God uses them to expose our weaknesses and to show us our need to tightly hold onto His strength, not our own. There are things that happen in life’s circumstances like a job loss, and we find out how we depended on our income rather than the Lord. Or maybe our marriage comes to an end, and we find ourselves lost without support and need His. There are also times God uses our circumstances to show a weakness in our character. Maybe we have experienced doing or saying something that we later thought, “I can’t believe I said that! I can’t believe I did that!” I’m sure Peter didn’t know he would deny the Lord three times, but he did. We all have weak areas, and the Lord wants to expose them so we can trust Him and draw our strength from Him.

When facing our troubles it will either make us become bitter or better. If our focus is on the big “I”, our ego, we become bitter. But when we look to the Lord, we will become better and stronger in Him. If our focus is on what we will learn from it, it can be character building, as we will grow through the hard times and become more like Him. Paul wrote in Phil. 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Let us die to self so we might live for Him.
Challenge for today: Instead of trying to get out of your hard situations, ask the Lord to help you learn what He is trying to teach you through them.
Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy

February 1, 2025

Dear Ones,
Happy weekend to you! We had fun time celebrating the January birthday’s yesterday with an awesome cake and ice cream, and bouquets of roses on each table etc. Today I am going to clean the apartment and make a crock pot of stew and soon the aroma will fill this place.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Our thoughts are important and whatever we allow to occupy our minds will eventually determine our feelings. Scripture says, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” Proverbs 23:7 Our thoughts shape our character and our speech and our actions, so we need to take care of what we let our thoughts dwell on for we are what we think and believe. How we talk to ourselves influences our mood and feelings. If we dwell on negative, depressive and anxious thoughts it changes even our brain chemistry. Wow!

We read today that the majority of people suffer from anxiety and so many live in despair and resignation. What can we do? So many people believe there is no purpose or meaning to life, so they live for instant satisfaction, trying to get more and more etc. But it doesn’t work and one psychologist, Edmund Bourne, said it is fertile ground for panic attacks and phobias. We need a larger purpose to life. We need belief in God who gives us meaning and helps us overcome our anxious thoughts. Only He can give us inner peace, purpose and unconditional love. When we come to love and depend on Him then we can look beyond ourselves and also serve others

We live in a fallen world and there are times we do suffer. But Bourne says we can seek to let it form us rather than deform us. We don’t need to waste it but let it humble us and deepen our dependence on God and strengthen our relationship with Him and others. We can always come to the Lord and pray in faith for healing and trust for however He will bring healing to us. If we are hanging on to a sinful practice, we need to let it go. There may even be some that don’t want to get well as it gains them attention from others. God knows the timing and sees our innermost needs and will work things for our good and not give us more than we can handle.
Challenge for today: Be honest before the Lord and express your feelings, anxieties and questions and then move on to rehearse His faithfulness and trust!
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

January 31, 2025

Dear Ones,
Hope you have a relaxing and refreshing weekend! Beautiful weather for our walks on the trail. Today is party day here and we are celebrating 11 birthdays, and one will get a crown for her age.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
When we come to know the Lord, He lives in us, and we want to please Him. Accepting the Lord is just the beginning for then we have the whole rest of our life to know Him and please Him and grow in Him. But we can’t live a God-pleasing life by our own will power or good intensions but by His power that is within us. Big difference! None of us are able to grow and do God’s will by our own effort but only as the life of Christ who lives in us is released to do His will.

  I think of our granddaughter, Paige who got married last summer. She knows Devin to a degree but when they live together all the years that Al and I have, when she says she knows him, it will be on a much deeper level. She would then know all his ups and downs, his good points but also areas he needs to grow in etc. Al says to me nearly every day, “Thank you that you have stayed with me all these years!” We aren’t perfect and therefore we need to let the life of Jesus within us cover those areas we yet need to change….and we will be doing that until the day we die.

 We all want to grow and live better lives, holy lives, and our efforts are fruitless when we do it in our own strength, plus it gets us discouraged; but we can ask by faith that the Lord to do His work in us. As it says in I Thess. 5:24, “The One who called you to this life will do it!” We have to give up struggling and trying to sanctify ourselves and trust the Lord to do it within us by His power. It is Christ within us that does the working out. (Col. 1:27) Life gets peace filled as we admit our weaknesses but see His strength and power at work in us and we are left with hearts overflowing with gratitude.

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord what He has planned for your day and let Him do His work through you.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

January 30, 2025

Dear Ones,
Hope you have a day with some quiet time to listen. Al will be going to Men’s group this morning and I have my treatment and later we have Bible study here.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
It’s good for all of us to take time to just sit with the Lord in quiet and listen to Him speak to our hearts. Al and I start our day together by sitting on the sofa and praying for many of you and it usually takes almost an hour. We then go on to have our own devotions and prayer time and I may sometimes write down things I want to share with you from that time. But I want to spend more time to just sit quietly with the Lord for a set time, with no words, but to listen to Him and enjoy just being with Him. We too soon go into our day and are bombarded by the world, and we need time with the One who will help us get through our day in His strength.

When we choose to sit and listen to the Lord, we won’t know what He may say to us and sometimes it is not anything like we would have imagined. It could be a sense of comfort or a specific word we need to hear, but when we love, it is enough just to sit together even in silence. The other morning when I was sitting quietly, the Lord brought to mind words of song that I haven’t sung for a long time. It was composed long ago by Cesar Franck and often performed by the Mormon Tabernacle choir: “O Lord most holy, O Lord most mighty, O Loving Father, we praise forevermore/ Help us to know Thee, know Thee and love Thee. Father, Father, grant us Thy truth and love. Father, Father, guide and protect us.” The song goes on to ask God to rule in our willful hearts and to help us with our wandering thoughts and to show us mercy. I need that.

Another song that came to mind was, “Change my heart O Lord, Make it ever true. Change my heart, O Lord, may I be like you. You are the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me this is what I pray.” It was written by Eddie Espinosa on his way to work, as he felt he had been drifting some from the Lord.  The words suddenly came to him, and he scribbled them down while at a stop sign and it has become a beloved song for many…. Me included. Another song also came to me as I sat in quiet, and the message was all the same to draw closer to the Lord and to know Him in a deeper way.

Challenge for today: Spend some time in quiet today and later write down what you think the Lord is wanting you to know.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

January 29, 2025

Dear Ones,
Hope you have a wonderful day. Today I plan to do food prep, go to exercise class and crafts and this evening Bible study.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
How beautiful is the fruit of the Spirit seen in the lives of Christ followers. It’s a sign of God’s presence and power to change persons from selfish beings to persons who exude God’s selfless love. God wants to transform each of us into His image so when others see us living selfless lives it is a sign of God’s presence in us and touches the hearts of others.

Paul says in Colossians 3:14 says, “Wrap yourself in (unselfish) love, which is the perfect bond of unity (for everything is bound together in agreement when one seeks the best for others.) “The Greek word for bond means “That which fastens together separate items into unity.” When we practice sacrificial love for others, we become one in Spirit and there is harmony and oneness. That does not always come easy for we seem naturally quick to want our own way and to be more concerned with ourselves than others. We might conclude that if we didn’t have to relate to others how happy we would be, but we in a sense are our own worst enemy. Anthony, a 20-year-old monk, was confronted by Jesus’ words to “Go sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me.” (Mark 10:21) He was so taken by those words that he sold his inheritance and went to the desert and was alone with God. But there he had to deal with himself, the forces of evil and his shadow side; but as he humbled himself and got victory over his own demons and became a changed man. Many others were healed through him and changed by his humble example.

Wouldn’t we all like to know that other lives were changed because of our witness, and selflessness. We need to come to know ourselves and our own hidden sins and passions so we can know our need for the Lord. The closer we come to the Lord, the humbler we become for we see our own hearts.  Let us not be mulling over the faults and sins of others, but humbly see ourselves and our sins and shortcomings, acknowledging our need for His grace. Then the fruit of the Spirit will grow in us, and we will have no cause to point it out to others.

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to show you more of your heart, and humbly repent so you may become more fruitful for His kingdom.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

January 28, 2025

Dear Ones,
Hope you have a good day with an openness to the Holy Spirit.  I had a wonderful afternoon yesterday as a friend invited everyone to her apt who desired to make greeting cards; tables were full of card stock and embellishments, and I made 13 cards. Such fun! Today we are invited to friends for the afternoon of fellowship. Emoji
Devotions from Judy’s heart
I have realized more and more how much I need the Holy Spirit, and I often pray that I can hear His voice speaking to my heart. We get a lot teaching about God and Jesus but not so much about the Holy Spirit who is the third person of the Trinity. The disciples needed the power of the Holy Spirit when Jesus left this earth and were told to wait for Him. We read the miraculous things they did in His name after they were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. We likewise need the Holy Spirit to be poured out on us afresh to guide us, renew us, give us power, and to help us actualize the presence of Jesus.  I love the song:

Come Holy Spirit, I need Thee
Come sweet Spirit, I pray
Come in Thy strength and Thy power
Come in Thine own gentle way.

How do we respond to the Holy Spirit when He is poured out upon us? Hopefully, we welcome Him and listen to Him and obey as He directs us. Sometimes we are like children who disobey in small ways and think it does not really matter, but each time we disobey, it makes it easier to disobey again and again. Gradually we become dull to the Spirit’s voice and end up going our own way continually. But there is deep peace if we welcome Him and listen and obey. When we catch ourselves compromising or disobeying even in small things, it is good to quickly ask for forgiveness.

A few days ago, I asked you all the question, “Recall a time you felt the Lord correcting you and how did you respond? Did you see fruit later?” I want to share one of the responses I received. “To answer your question from yesterday: Many times, God has convicted me of something and when I act on it, hard as it is, I am usually brought peace and sometimes reconciliation. One instance when I was a supervisor I offended a woman under me by my actions. I thought I was justified in what I did because what she did wasn’t on the up and up. The Holy Spirit convicted me, I had overstepped. I apologized to her, and she was surprised and accepted it. We became closer after that. God is a loving disciplinarian, and correction brings growth and blessing. Growth in my trust in Him and His great faithfulness and blessing in the lesson learned and relationship mended.”

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to help you not to compromise or disobey even in small things and obey the Holy Spirit.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy
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