Monday, February 11, 2013
By: Rachelle Hitt Bilbo
Spiritual Heimlich
Isaiah 55:9 As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
We experienced a very frightening incident with our two-year-old son Maddox yesterday. As his face began to turn red and tears began to fall down his face, we realized that he was choking. In his distress, he reached out to my husband.
My husband picked him up, laid him across his lap face down, and firmly hit his back with the palm of his hand. The peppermint that he managed to snag was thrust to the floor, and he began to breathe easily.
I saw the hand of God move mightily in this situation, and I was quickly reminded of God's faithfulness. My son's reaction to this experience is very much like our reaction to God when we are going through trials.
So often, we approach Him just like Maddox approached his earthly father. We run to Him...breathless and devoid of life with tears in our eyes. He picks us up, and He then responds in
a way that we may not understand or comprehend. I am certain that Maddox, in his two-year-old understanding, could not fathom why my husband laid him down and essentially "hit" his back. He just wanted Brandon to hold him.
Have you ever been there? You just want God to hold you, and while He is there to wrap His loving arms around us, there are times that there are things He needs to "thrust" out of our lives so that we can receive the healing that we so desperately need.
Shockingly, my son STILL wanted that peppermint--the very thing that could have killed him. Today's verse reminds us that "God's ways are higher than our ways." We may not always understand why we face particular trials or why God responds as He does. We may not even understand that the thing He is trying to free us from is detrimental to our lives, but God knows. Our understanding is so limited compared to the Great and Mighty God we serve.
I challenge you today to stop trying to figure everything out, and let God be God. Just as we would have done anything yesterday to enable our son to breathe, God wants to clear your passageway of anything that is limiting full life in Him.
Dear Lord, I thank You that You love me enough to do whatever it takes to get my attention. Purge me of anything that would keep me from my purpose that You have for me in this life.
I thank You Jesus for dying for me. I believe that You are Lord and that God raised You from the grave so that I can have eternal life. In the Name of Jesus I pray.
