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.

Category: Whispers (Page 1 of 87)

May 31, 2023

May 31, 2023 / / 0 Comments

 

Dear Ones,

Hope your day is full of sunshine. This morning I am going to my exercise class, Aldi’s and crafts and then Bible Study tonight. If you are not getting my devotions, please go to our website, canaansrest.org/whispers, and scroll down and resubscribe. I may have lost some of your e-mail addresses also in the transfer to my new computer. There is a small miracle chance that a geek that is coming from Minot next week will be able to restore what has been lost.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  Perhaps all of us need to relinquish our earth view of things to see more from heaven’s perspective. It could change us forever! I was reading an article by Helen Calder about how God changes our story and reveals His glory. My heart resonated with her words as she wrote how God brings grace and healing to those things in our past that have left us with shame and pain and brings good from it.

We can ask ourselves how many times has God used a closed door in our lives for His greater plan. At the time we may have felt disappointment but then we see how God used it for a far greater good in His plan. Or perhaps we grieve the loss of a ministry we were holding onto and later we are led into a very different way of serving the Lord that seems to be a perfect fit. Or maybe God moved us just when we felt so comfortable but then later, we can see His purpose and can rejoice.

  I am so humbled when I see God’s better way and know that I see only dimly, and He sees the whole panoramic view of things. He can rewrite our stories if we give Him the pieces and are willing to forgive and quit hanging on. Sometimes it means forgiving another and it can also mean forgiving ourselves. Like Joyce Meyers who endured being sexually abused by her dad fo her growing up years, God has rewritten her story and given her a ministry that brings healing to so many. It took her some time to forgive, as it often does for us, but when God is handed our stories, we have no idea how He will rewrite ours. Actually, doesn’t that sound exciting? Lately, I have had a couple dreams where my responses were different than before and I see how the Lord has healed me in a certain area. I give Him praise!
   Let us give the Lord all the pieces of our lives and see how He transforms them and brings glory. Like the old gospel hymn goes:                        “Shackled by a heavy burden/ ‘neath a load of guilt and shame/ Then the hand of Jesus touched me/ and now I am no longer the same.”        Refrain: He touched me, O, He touched me/ And O ,the joy that floods my soul/ Something happened, and now I know/ He touched me and made me whole./ Since I met this blessed Savior/ Since He cleansed and made me whole/ I will never cease to praise Him/ I’ll shout it while eternity rolls.”

Challenge for today: Hand over all the pieces of your life to the One who makes you whole.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

                                                                                                           

May 30, 2023

May 30, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Dear Ones,
Hope you are having a good day. We just got home from friends for coffee and sorry this is so late. I got my computer back today but sadly my documents and pictures didn’t make it in the transfer. There is one last chance when I Geek comes from Minot next week. Praying!
Devotions from Judy’s heart
If someone would wonder if we were a Christian, how would they be able to tell? Do we display the marks of one who has been forgiven and set free and now lives a life of love? Like the song goes, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” This sone was written by a parish priest in Chicago in 1960 for his youth choir as they went out to sing. How appropriate, not only for them but all of us.
Our natural inclinations is not always love but to fight back. Just today I was tested on this as I went to get my new computer. They lost all my documents and pictures when they transferred things from my old computer to my new one. I wore my t-shirt that said GRACE so I would remember to be grace-filled. Paul said in Romans 12:21,” Don’t be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.” The mark of a true Christian is genuine love rather than letting evil overcome us. Recently I was reading on Crosswalk.com about Overcoming Evil with Good, and we would probably all say that is not an easy thing to do. We surely need more than our human love for only God’s love is the powerful weapon that overcomes evil. Too often we may take shortcuts by returning sarcasm to the one who gave us a snide remark. Instead, we can choose God’s way of love. The test may sometimes come on Facebook when destructive remarks are given for all to see. Perhaps no response is best but if we do respond, may it be in love. When we get negative and vindictive, the enemy wins. But when we respond God’s way of love, it is a win-win! We may not see changes in the other person right away, but God’s love is more powerful than our sarcastic words!
We all make choices each day if we are going to express His love, or if our old nature is in charge. Paul goes on to say, “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” Rom. 12:9-10. When we go our way the enemy wins but if we go God’s way, we experience His love in deep ways.
Challenge for today: The next time a hurtful remark is given, pause and respond with His love
Blessings on the rest of your day and prayers and love, Judy

May 27, 2023

May 27, 2023 / / 0 Comments
Dear Ones,
 Hope you have a wonderful long enjoyable weekend! I just finished cleaning our apt and making G.F. cookies for the grandsons, sweet potatoes , and  food prep. Today we are going to Culver’s for lunch which is Al’s favorite place, and then get flowers for our balcony and some herbs. Tomorrow afternoon we are going to the lake and stopping to see a friend on the way. I hope to have a hot scrabble game with our grandsons and then we will have a family picnic at the Point. It is always a  fun gathering time to see extended family. We hope the mosquitoes don’t eat us alive though!
Devotions from Judy’s heart,
 Change comes to all of us with or without our permission. Some people thrive on change but for the majority of us, change does not come easy and takes a time of adjustment.
   Here at Northern Lakes, we often have new people coming to live who have just sold their homes and had to downsize to fit everything into apartment living. It is a big change and yet we can sympathize as we all have been through it and made the adjustment. Young people who graduate and go away from home and out into the world on their own, take a big leap to a different way of life. Our granddaughter, Lily, just graduated and because she is a decorated athlete, she leaves next week for Kansas State and begins soccer practice right away…not much time to adjust for her. Others move across country for a new job, new home, new church, new everything and it takes a while to transition. Or maybe we lose our mate, and our whole life seems to be upside down with total change.
  That’s the thing about change, we don’t necessarily choose it, often it just happens and we are left to deal with it. Leaving the old but not knowing what to expect from the new is a challenge. We have to adjust and it takes time and a whole lot of dependency on the Lord.
  It’s so good to know He does not change for He is the same yesterday, today and forever! He is love and always there for us in the midst of where we are at. We don’t always understand His purposes for us at the time, but we can rest assured that He is present in our circumstances whatever they are.
   I was reading from Psalm 37 today and David wrote in verse 23-24, “A person’s steps are directed by the Lord, and the Lord delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be thrown down headfirst because the Lord holds on to his hand.” When we let the Lord direct our lives we can rest assured even in the changes that come, that He walks with us through them and steadies us with His hand. David goes on to say, “Wait with hope for the Lord, and follow His path.” Even when we don’t understand His ways as changes come to us, we can rest in His peace and know that we are not alone but He right there with us.
  Challenge for today: When change comes unannounced into your life, welcome the Lord into your situation and rest in Him.
Blessings on your holiday weekend and prayers and love, Judy

 

May 26, 2023

May 26, 2023 / / 0 Comments
Dear Ones,
Happy Holiday weekend and hope it is an enjoyable one for you. Today is party day here so Al and I will be going to Costco when it opens to get the Birthday cake. I have 2 good helpers and we set up and serve and have fun! Relatives will be going to the lake today and we hope the mosquitoes aren’t too bad that we can still have a picnic this weekend.  
Devotions from Judy’s heart
   I think we have all questioned at different times why God lets people suffer and doesn’t do something about it. We can wonder if God is really listening to our prayers and if He is, why doesn’t He act now! I am reading Larry Crabb’s book, When God’s Way Makes No Sense and he addresses this issue and causes me to search my own heart and its motives.
   When we suffer or see our loved ones suffer, we can respond in several ways. If His ways don’t make sense to us, Crabb writes that we can resist and run. Just like Jonah who at first refused to go to warn the people of Nineveh that if they didn’t repent, they would get wiped out. But since they were his enemy, he didn’t like what God was saying and went as far as he could in the opposite direction. Maybe we do that too.
   The second way we may respond is to distort scripture of what we want to believe about it to suit our own ways. We try to shape God in what we want to fit our own preferences, often to fit into the culture as well.
   The third way Crabb mentions is to tremble and trust. When things happen, we first may tremble as we feel our confusion but then we go on to trust that He is good and will lead us until the day He takes us home. Habakkuk got a message from God that he was to deliver but didn’t like it at all, for his enemy was going to punish Judah. However, he didn’t distort the message but gave it as it was given him and trusted God.
  We may all ask why God allows our pain to remain and why He doesn’t do something about it. We may think we deserve better than that, and ask why we couldn’t grow in other ways than suffering? But God leads us through suffering and failures to bring us to maturity.
   The question is asked, “Am I following the Lord or asking Him to follow me?! As it says in Isaiah 55:8 that His thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not our ways. We need to trust Him even when we don’t understand or know the outcome. He is all the time shaping us and forming us more into His image. And He uses what He is doing in our lives for the good of others as well.
  He is always, always worth of our trust, even when it doesn’t make sense, especially then! One day we will all be free of hurt and pain and fully enjoy heaven forever more.
Challenge for today: Value what the Lord is doing in you and don’t resist His hand.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

May 25, 2023

May 25, 2023 / / 0 Comments
Dear Ones,
Hope you are enjoying this beautiful day. I have been doing food prep this morning and just got back from Aldi’s. Al had Men’s group this morning and  today is Donut day here and Bible study this afternoon. 
Devotions from Judy’s heart
  Age is creeping up on me and so are the wrinkles! I no longer look like the pictures in my youthful years and our beauty obsessed culture has a million remedies advertising how to be beautiful and forever young. But the fact is for all of us that our beauty will fade as it says in Proverbs 31:30, “Charm is deceitful and beauty fades, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised.”
  Rather than bemoaning the fact that we are getting older or spending big bucks on trying to reverse our fading beauty, let us give more thought to our inner self and what God sees. When He created us, He said it was good and we know that He doesn’t make junk! We are told in scripture that a woman’s beauty comes not from outward adornment but from a gentle quiet spirit, which is precious in God’s sight. (I Peter 3:4) Beauty on the inside is what God desires for us and that comes from fearing the Lord, seeking Him and not focusing on ourselves. We are more beautiful as we become more like Him.
  Now you guys who are reading this are not off the hook because men today are also spending lots of money and time on their appearance as well. You might be more concerned that you can’t weightlift as much as you use to, or that you’re losing hair and nearly bald; but instead let your focus be on becoming strong in the Lord and the power of His might. Both men and women are created for good works as Paul says in Eph. 2:10: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” We are not to be super concerned about our outward appearance but rather doing the works that He has prepared for us to do. Let us all be ever growing in the Lord, and doing His works and becoming more like Him
Challenge for today: Focus on inner beauty and strength rather than outward fleeting things!
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

May 24, 2023

May 24, 2023 / / 0 Comments
Dear Ones,
I wrote this early this morning but couldn’t get on our blog site. I just tried again  and it worked but will send as I wrote it earlier. 
It is a rainy day but hopefully sunshine within! I just did food prep and made some bars and soon going to my exercise class and then to get my stitches out. This afternoon is crafts and tonight is Bible study. Hopefully I will be able to send out this devotional as I had trouble yesterday. 
Devotions from Judy’s heart
   How is your soul? Is it well with your soul? I went to order a necklace that had had the message inscribed, “It is well with my soul”. No matter what is going on in our lives, is it still well with our souls? 
   I marvel and learn from the apostle Paul and how he entrusted his soul so completely to the Lord even in the times his very life was at stake. He wasn’t basing his faith and hope on the fact that things would go well for him, but only that the Lord would keep what he had already committed to the Lord. As he told Timothy, his spiritual son in the faith, “I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.” II Tim.1:12 (ESV) His very soul was entrusted to the Lord.  He went on to tell Timothy to share in the suffering and endure it as a good soldier of Christ. Paul didn’t paint a picture of a pain free life but only that the Lord would strengthen him and bring him through whatever happened until the day he would enter heaven.
  We are not in control of all that happens to us, but our soul can be at rest as we give ourselves completely to the Lord, even when it may not make sense to us in the natural. Not everything is good that happens to us, but He works it for the greatest good. Like the song goes, “When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrow like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.” The writer of the song was Horatio Spafford who wrote it in 1873 on his way to meet his wife who had been rescued at sea but his 4 daughters had just drowned. He had already lost his only son at age 4 and he had lost much of his business during the Chicago fire. Yet he could say, no matter what, “It is well with my soul!”
  May we also trust the Lord, even when we don’t understand His ways and remember He knows the larger story that will bring Him glory.
Challenge for today:  Ask the Lord to bring out the greatest good of whatever you are going through.
Blessings and prayers and love, Judy

  

May 23, 2023

May 24, 2023 / / 0 Comments
Dear Ones,
The following is from yesterday as we had trouble with our blog site. If you don’t receive in the future we are working on it. 
The sun is shining and hope you are enjoying this beautiful day. I have been working in the kitchen and Al is happily sampling  banana bread! Today we are going  out for lunch with good friends from the lake to celebrate her long ago birthday. We have tried numerous times and finally were able to coordinate our schedules with noone sick or on a trip!  Emoji
Devotions from Judy’s heart
  The Lord has so much for us and wants us to live full lives in His love and grace. He desires that our lives be like a garden of beauty with luscious fruit. But often there are attitudes and behavior that block the growth in our lives and our gardens don’t produce all that the Lord has planned for us.
   We may wonder why God hasn’t blessed us with material things like someone else who seems rather prideful. Such wonderings often lead to dry seeds in our garden as we lack joy. Or maybe we suffer with health issues and others seem to go about carefree when it takes all our energy just to get through the day. When Jesus asked the man who had been sick for 38 years if he wanted to become well, perhaps he was really asking if the man was willing to give up self-pity and poor-me attitude.
  Many of you reading this have been through things in your life that you would wish on no one else. But no matter what we have endured we have to say like Joyce Meyers who was molested her whole childhood, we have to let go of the ashes before God can give us beauty. Then our garden can be watered and the dormant seeds blossom and bear fruit. No matter what we have endured, God can give us a beautiful garden when we join our life with His. Like it says in Matt. 11:28, “Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden” Then come to me. I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis. Simply join your life with mine,”
   Before long we won’t remember our afflictions for the sweet scent of our garden will bring life to our inmost being, where the Lord dwells. Let go of anything that hinders the growth in your garden.
Challenge for today: Instead of rehearsing your trials, give thanks for what God is growing in your garden.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy
 

May 22, 2023

May 22, 2023 / / 1 Comment
Dear Ones,
Hope you had a wonderful weekend! This morning I just made Chicken Teriyaki and went to Aldi’s and my exercise class. This afternoon we will be making a visit to Vicki who have walked the Paul Bunyan trail with so many times.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
  We never know where our lives will take us but we do know we have a loving Father who is with us each step we take. Sometimes we go through twists and turns and taken to places we would rather not go but He is there always.
  Today we are going to see our friend Vickie, whom I have written of in the past. She was a well-known Doctor/surgeon who delivered more babies than she could count. But her life has changed as she is now in an Alzheimer’s care center where we will visit her. David, her husband, has written poetry to be put into a book for others going on this similar journey with their loved ones, but lately the words didn’t come for another poem and he was frustrated. He went outside to photograph an unforgettable sunset and he said, “God if you can make such a beautiful sunset then give me something to help as I am at the end of my rope.”  He sensed the Holy Spirit telling him to turn the page in his writing and Alzheimer’s was no longer to be his main focus but spirituality, nature, social justice issues etc. The verse came to mind from Matt. 6:33, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.”  I will share with you the poem he just wrote called:
                          Before the Sunset

 

              The sun’s light becomes a beautiful masterpiece
              As it prepares to settle into a night of rest and peace
              The sun has warmed the earth this day like a symphony
              In perfect harmony 
              
              When the day turns to night
              Stars and moon create additional light 
              The shadow of the for-get-me-not flowers disappear
              The constellation with the star of love appears
 
              When the sun falls just below the horizon, we hear (beyond the sunset) an old hymn
              Oh, what wonder we have witnessed as the sun dim
              The beauty of the setting sun was like love and romance               
              Which opened Heaven’s door just enough to share a glance.”
 
  We plan to bring cookies on a stick and have coffee with Vickie along with music and a time of sharing together. Life has changed for them but we celebrate each day He gives for He is always, always with us!
Challenge for today: Take some time in nature and give thanks to the Lord for where He has you right now.
Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy

 

May 20, 2023

May 20, 2023 / / 0 Comments
Dear Ones,
Happy Weekend! The sun is shining brightly and hope you will be enjoying this day. Our granddaughter, Lily, graduated last night and the rain quit in time for the ceremony. PTL! I just made choc chip cookies on a stick and sweet potatoe rounds so the apt is filled with sweet aroma. 
Devotions from Judy’s heart
  The Lord has a calling for each of us and our life will be fulfilling if we are in the place God has for us. We can lose ourselves when we try to become what we think others expect of us and try to please them rather than God. We must ask ourselves if we want His will for our lives more than we want to please others and ourselves? And the truth of it is, we can never please everybody anyway and we will get very weary in the process if we try. Why not follow the One who knows and loves us best!
   Al and I live more of a monastic life as we spend time in quiet reading and writing and praying. We don’t have loud music on or the TV going until supper time when we watch the news. Not long ago, I spent a couple days from 9 until 3 making cards with friends, and I loved it but it is not my calling to do every day. I need time alone, to spend in the Word, to listen and to write. I have been doing it for over a dozen years and it has become a contemplative life. When I get too busy, I long for the quietness again.
  The Lord may be calling you to a life of outreach to the poor or giving nursing care to the sick; or maybe you are a listener to those who with heavy hearts etc. But one thing we are all called to do is to share the Good News by the way we live and speak.  I read Psalm 51 today from a modern Translation and in the 12th verse David says, “Let my passion for life be restored, tasting joy in every breakthrough you bring to me. Hold me close to you with a willing spirit that obeys whatever you say.” 
   We may all need to make some changes in our lives if we are to know and please the Lord. Do we desire to become the person He wants us to be, then we know He will bring changes into our lives. Our part is to yield to Him each day, and say, “Not my will but yours!” Then we will find joy in His presence as not miss out on His plan for our life.
Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to show you where you have been compromising and seek His face and will daily.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

  

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