A devotion about how God showed up during a hard time.
I hugged my five-year-old goodbye. His eyes wouldn’t meet mine and I knew what that meant: He was trying not to cry.
“I know exactly where you are, and I can find you if I need to. Try to have fun. Remember, you can call me anytime, even in the middle of the night.”
He climbed into my husband’s minivan, surrounded by suitcases and leather hides, bits of my husband’s business.
My son looked mournfully at me through the window, and I forced a smile. As the car backed out of the driveway and into the darkness, I waved until the taillights retreated into the distance.
The house was too quiet. Evidence of their absence lay everywhere – in the scattered balloons rolling around the living room floor and the rumpled blankets on two empty beds.
I pleaded for God to protect my babies’ tender hearts, then I crawled into bed. Normally, having a bed not stealthily entered by small bodies in the middle of the night would add up to a good night’s sleep. This night, however, I tossed and turned and had nightmares about terrible things happening to my children.
But God met me in the night. I lay down saddled with sorrow and when I arose…I was singing.
A song played on repeat in my heart: “The Goodness of God.”
And all my life you have been faithful
And all my life you have been so so good
I didn’t close my eyes and lay my head on the pillow singing this song. It hadn’t drifted up into my dreams and inspired a morning song. This song was a reminder that God was good, and He was with me, all the time, even when my heart hurt.
That morning was a Sunday, so I sang in my heart as I went to church alone, with no idea that God was about to meet me again.
Early in his sermon, the pastor transitioned to a recorded testimony from two church members.
A few months before, the man in the video collapsed at home. He received CPR for about 15 minutes – without a heartbeat or respiration – until he was resuscitated but unconscious.
Prayers went out. People prayed and waited, including the man’s wife, who said these words in her video testimony:
“I went to bed not knowing what would happen to him. Not knowing if he would ever wake up. But when I woke up the next morning I was singing “The Goodness of God” in my heart.”
Her words nailed me to my seat, hardly breathing, drinking in the full wonder of God’s goodness and presence. I understood what the sons of Korah meant when they wrote Psalm 42:8:
The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
And in the night His song shall be with me –
A prayer to the God of my life.
His song. Reminding me and you that when He gave us His Holy Spirit, we received His permanent presence. Even when our circumstances hurt, God is still good and God is still present.
Sometimes His presence is quiet, like a considerate friend with whom words are not necessary. And, sometimes, He sings over us in the night.
And the man? He fully recovered with no lasting side effects, a feat his nurses had only seen three times.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank You for Your constant presence in my heart. Please help my soul rest in Your promised presence, no matter what is going on around me. Your words are truth, and Your promises are always kept. You are always with me, God of compassion. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Why should you trust God? Maybe because the Psalm writers did. In this guided journal – The Key to Peace is Trusting God – you’ll read through the “Trust God” psalms and learn why and how you, too, can find peace through trusting God.