Devotionals for the Heart: Reasons why you can trust God to catch you

Catch Me
A devotional by Jo Huddleston

“And, surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 
~Matthew 28:20 (NIV)

One sunny afternoon, I pushed my three-year-old granddaughter, Mallory, on her swing. Soon tired of swinging, she hopped off the swing and scampered up the ladder to the slide.

Mallory soon discovered she had a problem: the slide was too hot from the sunshine for her to rest her bare legs against the metal so that she could slide down. Compounding her dilemma, Mallory lacked the necessary coordination to retrace her climb back down the ladder.

I walked toward the slide, thinking she would ask me to lift her off. But, without warning, Mallory leapt through the air toward me. I wrapped my arms around her just as she latched onto me. Mallory had chosen me as an escape from her perch atop the slide.

“You catched me!” Mallory shouted. “Momma Jo, I love you,” she said.

Recalling Mallory’s joy, I remembered a time I made a leap of faith into God’s arms. Thirteen years earlier, I watched meningitis suck precious life from the still form of Paige, my college-aged daughter, now Mallory’s mother.

Lying curled in a fetal position in her hospital bed, my daughter moved only her eyes. She looked up at me and whispered, “Mother, this may be my time to die.” Holding her limp hand in mine, I leaned closer and said quietly, “Darling, it may be.” No panic or fear registered in her words or in her fevered eyes. She shared a labored smile with me and slowly closed her swollen eyes.

I didn’t curse God or offer Him any arguments or attempt to bargain with Him to spare Paige’s life. Just as Mallory had felt secure in my catching her, I trusted God for His comfort and everlasting strength to catch me.

By the next day, Paige’s health had made an unbelievable change for the better and two days later the doctors released her from their care. God had rescued my daughter, and I breathed, “God, I love You!”

In His Word, God promises to be with us always. If we accept His promises with the innocence and trust of a little child, we can know the security of having the “peace of God, which transcends all understanding.” ~Philippians 4:7 (NIV)

God is always ready to catch you in your time of trouble if you trust Him and obey His word. In your heart, take God’s promises as a lifeline, depend on His protection. God is the only unchanging part of life. Allow him to take care of you.

~*~
Author Bio:

Jo Huddleston is a multi-published author who writes novels inspired by her fascination with the 1950s and her love of her native American South. 

Novels in her endearing Caney Creek series, her West Virginia Mountains series, as well as her stand-alone release, Tidewater Summer, are sweet Southern romance novels. 

Her writing career includes more than 200 articles and short stories, which have appeared in over 50 well-known Christian and secular publications including Guideposts and Decision. She's an online contributor to Christian Devotions Ministries (www.ChristianDevotions.us).

Jo’s devotions appear in eight anthologies and she wrote devotions on assignment and freelance for the following daily devotionals: Devotions, Open Windows, Pathways to God, The Quiet Hour, The Secret Place, and The Upper Room.

She is a member of the Literary Hall of Fame at Lincoln Memorial University (TN), and holds a M.Ed. degree from Mississippi State University. Visit Jo online at this address, www.johuddleston.com.

Devotionals for the Heart: Jo's story about God's Healing Power

Equipment for Valley Travel
by Jo Huddleston

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you” (John 14:27).

My bedside vigil stretched into days as I watched meningitis suck precious life from the still form of my college-age child. Sunday afternoon I sat alone with my daughter, watching the disease apparently winning its battle. Gone were the twinkle in her eyes and the ready smile on her lips. The nurse had just left, the same one who had been coming in every 15 minutes to take vital signs. Pained and discouraged, I watched when she recorded on her chart a blood pressure reading only half what it should be.

Alone again in the hospital room, each of us experienced our own unique agony. Lying curled in a fetal position, my daughter moved only her eyes. With them almost swollen shut, she looked up at me through her consuming torture. "Mother, this may be my time to die," she whispered. No panic or fear registered in her words or in her fevered eyes.

The same thought had been silently hammering inside my mind all afternoon. Holding her limp hand in mine, I leaned closer and said quietly, "Darling, it may be." She shared a labored smile with me and slowly closed her eyes.

Amazingly, I did not curse God or offer him any arguments or attempt to bargain with Him to spare her life. I knew without doubt that my daughter believed in God's Son and trusted Him for her salvation and eternal life.

As precious minutes slipped away in that lonely hospital room, I trusted God for his comfort and everlasting strength to support me (Isaiah 26:4). I rested in the assurance that my daughter also claimed these same promises. I saw peace on her swollen face when she closed her eyes. We both accepted God's will.

Our pastor and his wife came by after evening church services. They barely concealed their shock at seeing my daughter’s hands and face twice their normal size. After speaking encouragement to her, they prayed with us in that still, quiet hospital room.

Looking back, I can only believe the Holy Spirit influenced every medical move my daughter's doctors and nurses made. The next day, her health made an unbelievable change for the better. Since she was fully recovered by Wednesday morning, the doctors released her from their care.

On Wednesday evening when our pastor found my daughter's hospital bed empty, he asked about her at the nurses’ station. Later he told us how much the nurses had marveled about her unexplainable recovery. "It's just a miracle that she survived," one nurse told him. We all smile now, knowing what absolute truth that nurse spoke.

Does a Christian experience valleys between the mountaintop experiences? Yes. Those trying days when it was evident I might outlive my daughter was one of the deepest valleys I’ve traveled. God promises His buffering strength and calming peace for valley travel. We can always cling to His promises, "For he himself is our peace" (Ephesians 2:14).

~*~
Author Bio: Jo Huddleston is a multi-published author who writes novels inspired by her fascination with the 1950s and her love of her native American South. 

Novels in her endearing Caney Creek series, her West Virginia Mountains series, as well as her stand-alone release, Tidewater Summer, are sweet Southern romance novels. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, the Literary Hall of Fame at Lincoln Memorial University (TN), and holds an M.Ed. degree from Mississippi State University. 

Visit Jo at www.johuddleston.com.