Dear Ones,
Hope you have a wonderful weekend and enjoy some time to get renewed. This morning I am going to church to help set up for a funeral of a friend who is now home with the Lord and Al will join me later for the service.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
  We may find it easy to praise the Lord when things in our lives are going well and our prayers answered quickly, but what about those other times? Maybe we have waited and waited, and the answer hasn’t come yet and we begin to lose hope and wonder God where are you? Do you see what is happening? It’s in those times that we learn to bring a sacrifice of praise, for He is still working, but not in the way or timing we desire. Like it says in Heb. 13:15, “Through Jesus we should always bring God a sacrifice of praise, that is, words that acknowledge Him.” That may mean praising Him with a heart of trust, believing that He is working in the situation… and just maybe He wants to do more than we asked for.

Greg Laurie wrote that “when we get to the end of ourselves, we get to the beginning of God.” He gave the example of Mary and Martha who sent word to Jesus about their brother Lazarus being sick and wanted Jesus to come, preferably quickly. But Jesus stayed 2 more days and Martha was angry thinking Jesus blew it, for her brother died in the meantime. But Jesus was on His Father’s time table and although Mary and Martha wanted a healing, Jesus wanted a resurrection! The miracle caused more of a stir in others than if Jesus had healed Lazarus right away.                                                                                                                                                               .Our part is to give our concerns to the Lord and put it all in His hands. Then we wait in faith, praising Him for how He is going to answer. As it says in Eph. 3:20, “God, can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” It is a sacrifice of praise to Him when things aren’t going well and we don’t know how it is going to turn out. I remember once when I was pleading with the Lord to answer my prayer in a certain way, but He didn’t. What I feared happened but later and to this day, I thank Him over and over that He didn’t answer my way, as He saved me from much less heartache in the long run.

Let us do as the song goes, “We bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord…and offer up to You the sacrifices of thanksgiving. And we offer up to You the sacrifices of joy.”
Challenge for today: Give God a concern you have on your heart and offer up praise and thanksgiving.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy