Devotions from Judy’s heart
It is good to remember when we go through stressful times such as unrest in our nation, COVID etc, that we are not alone. God is our helper! He is with us in our midst of whatever is happening. On Crosswalk.com., Julie Barrier wrote of how many of the hymns we know today were written by people of faith in the midst of troubles, wars, and plagues. When I read the stories of what the writers were experiencing at the time, I know the words will be even more meaningful when sung; they wrote about that which they knew and experienced. Pastor Martin Rinckart composed a song that we probably all know, and it was written in the midst of the Bubonic plague. Martin was the son of a poor coppersmith and became a Lutheran pastor sent to Eilenberg, Germany, which was a very small town ravaged by the Thirty Years War. He pastored there for 31 years under great hardship. The Swedish army set siege around their city wall and the whole town was overrun by refugees looking for a safe place. Shortly after, the Bubonic plague broke out and almost 5,000 died within a year. Food was scarce and many starving people showed up at his door. He could barely feed his own family and yet gave what he could away.  Pastor Rinckart took care of the sick and dying and was the only Pastor left to bury the dead, which included his own wife.  Sometimes he performed up to 50 funerals a day and but even in the midst of all this sorrow, he wrote the words to Now Thank We All Our God. You have most likely sung in in church too. The words are:

1.“Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

2.     Oh, may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And guard us through all ills in this world, till the next!

3.     All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given,
The Son, and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven—
The one eternal God, Whom earth and Heav’n adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.”

May we trust God whatever our circumstances, and even in the midst. give thanks.
Challenge for today: Spend some time thanking the Lord for where He has you right now.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy