What is the Lord saying right now? Over and over again, I’m haring:  Repent and Do Not Fear! These afflictions bring us to a point of decision: am I going to trust human wisdom or God’s? Am I going to sink into hopelessness or grow deeper in my relationship with Him?

Proverbs 15:13 A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance,
But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

Fear never really took hold for me. I’ve been finding grace, peace and excitement in Holy Spirit during this time. It’s not been easy for me, since my life’s not a lot different than normal, to take time aside to seek Him. I’ve started doing jigsaw puzzles at one end of our dining table that can get me quite distracted! This one was only 750 pieces, the one I just started is 1,000!

Hallelujah! My husband’s chosen not to watch the news on the living room TV, which has been a great turnaround in our household! One evening last week I was on Kindle on my laptop in my office reading Love’s Unfading Light, a Historical Christian Romance novel by Naomi Rawlings, the first in the Eagle Harbor series. John came in to see what I was doing and began reading over my shoulder. He got interested in the story and we finished reading the book, then we read chapter one of book 2 included at the end and he said, “Is that all?” He told me to buy the next book!

 John decided it’s a good way to spend our evenings, so I’ve brought my laptop out to the living room and we’ve made it through the second book, Love’s Every Whisper, in four evenings and just started book 3, Love’s Sure Dawn, last evening.

Naomi Rawlings packs a LOT of stuff into each book. There’s so many characters and so many unexpected happenings, it keeps you turning pages. The first book is set in 1880 on the shore of Lake Superior, the one I remember from Gordon Lightfoot’s song: Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It’s the largest, deepest, farthest west of the Great Lakes chain in the northern part of the U.S. and southern part of Canada. I am attached to the Great Lakes, my mother having grown up in Buffalo,on the shore of Lake Erie. Her grandfather was part of a ship’s crew in the 1880’s time frame and I’ve heard many stories and was around that lake at least twice a year visiting my grandparents outside the city. I grew up near enough to Lake Ontario to experience the Lake Effect snow storms and now live even nearer Lake Ontario shores. It’s an awesome thing for me even today to be so close I can see Canada’s shore on the other side of the lake and experience the special winds, clouds and weather that come with the lake. It can be as fickle as the waters in the Bible we read about with Jesus and His disciples.

Naomi does a good job of showing the difference in that time between the two shipping magnate’s families and the rest of the community. It really makes you think: is it better to be a rich family or a God fearing family? Her characters, both rich and poor, go through much struggle to find their true worth in God’s sight. The situations are quite real and Naomi has done her duty researching thoroughly. I highly recommend this series; I some how got connected with the author and was able to download the first book for free. I see it as good use for this time of sequestering.

Here are two more Scriptures about our heart attitude.

Proverbs 15:15 All the days of the afflicted are evil,
But he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.

Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart does good, like medicine,
But a broken spirit dries the bones.

So, let us renounce any fear, which causes stress, which damages our body, soul and mind. Replace it with a merry heart within which gives life. I like what Graham Cooke says: every Problem comes with a Promise, Provision, and a Promotion. The Promise of God is that He’s with us and all our hope is in Him. He knows all our needs before we voice them, and supplies them just in time. Stick close with Him in this and you’ll see promotion; new faith, peace and well being. This morning, Pastor shared the story of Job and these ‘P’s describe his testimony in a nutshell.

I’m looking for the revelation that brings revival! Lord, Let Your kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Amen.