Dear Ones,
  Hope you have a wonderful day. It is quite cool and windy out today  but hope everyone gets out to vote. Al and I are going shortly! Not sure if I will get downstairs for coffee and choc covered raspberries today as we don’t know if there will be long lines of voters. 
Devotions from Judy’s heart
  Prayer is so powerful and sometimes we just have to persist in prayer as we don’t yet see the answer. It is easier to give up after spending some time to pray about a particular concern of our hearts, but we are never to give up. I distinctly remember the last month of each pregnancy and how long it seemed before each baby was birthed. I felt like it was never going to happen!  Maybe we feel that way about certain prayers we have prayed for months and even years and we begin to doubt.
  But be encouraged the Lord hears every one of our prayers and we are to persistent in expectant faith. Like the woman who wore out the judge as she kept coming to him about her case, the judge finally gave her justice simply because he was tired of her pleas.  Unlike the judge, the Lord is quick to hear our heart’s cry the first time and ready to answer.
   I must confess there have been times I thought God had forgotten about my prayer concern since I saw nothing outwardly happening. That is not a good way to determine His actions though, as He begins His work in the heart, where only He truly sees. For example, when someone comes to the Lord, it didn’t just all happen that moment but it might have begun long ago with someone’s prayers for him. Then it could have continued when a remark was made by a friend sharing about God’s intervention in his life.  What followed might have been a sense of the Holy Spirit convicting him and finally He is ready to make a decision to follow the Lord. Everyone God uses to plant seeds is important.
   I especially love when I hear those instances when God uses even a little child to bring his daddy or mommy to the Lord. It is all a work of the Holy Spirit.
   May we not give up too soon but persist and have expectant faith for what God can do. Let us heed Jesus’ word to the persistent widow in Luke 18:1, to always pray and not lose heart.
Challenge for today: Confess any lack of faith for a concern that you have, and renew your trust in the Lord to answer in His timing and His way. 
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy