Living in the Shadow of Death Devotional: Shadow of Death

By Carrie Daws

Carrie adapted the first three chapters of the book to a 20-day devotional suitable for reading alone or with a group. Each day includes brief Scripture passages.

About the book Living in the Shadow of Death: Learning to Thrive through Tragedy and Uncertainty

Does God have a purpose for the turmoil or tragedy you are experiencing? Does a good God allow loss and send pain? How can that lurking feeling of dread for tomorrow be part of abundant life with Christ?

 

Grief hits us unexpectedly. A job loss, a failed relationship, a health crisis, an unexpected move, a rebellious teen, and other difficult circumstances force themselves upon us, demanding our attention. Fear, insecurity, and loneliness intimidate us into quiet submission and attempt to dictate our choices.

But what if we could shove them out our front door?

 

With loving concern and unyielding devotion for those facing a loss they never imagined, Carrie opens up her heart to reveal the biblical truths she's learned through the heart-wrenching turbulence in her own life. She answers questions many Christians struggle with but dare not admit:

• Is God really good?
• Does the presence of pain and loss cancel out the abundant life promised to us?
• How can we follow God when life seems to only bring heartache?
• Is He even trustworthy?

If these are your questions, take heart! Within these pages, Carrie shares some of her very unchristian-like doubts and how she developed an intense faith and abiding trust even while Living in the Shadow of Death.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Immeasurable Works
• Release date: May 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781947539280

Carrie Daws

Over the years, God rewrote Carrie’s dreams from being a corporate accountant to being a writer. With a background writing online weekly devotions, a mentor at the Christian Writer’s Guild encouraged her to try fiction. The writing monster she now barely keeps contained was born. Since then, she’s completed several inspirational fiction books and encouraging nonfiction for military spouses and new believers. After almost ten years in the US Air Force, Carrie’s husband medically retired, and they settled in North Carolina. With their three children all figuring out what they want to do in life after school, Carrie stays busy keeping up with her family and friends, loving on women, and entering story worlds via books and movies as much as she can.

Book preview

Day 1

The shadow of death. That phrase, taken from Psalm 23, carries so much with it. Fifteen days before finishing the manuscript for my book, Living in the Shadow of Death, my dad passed away. Nine days before I first penned the final words, I buried him with my mom, who died thirteen months before him. Even today, a little over three years later, I miss him terribly.

Those last months with Dad were a whirlwind where life came to a screeching halt. Four months prior to his death, I met my siblings at my dad’s house in Ohio to spend time together as a family and to see how he was adjusting to life without his wife of sixty years. Sixty years. He was okay, but we could tell that life alone was wearing on him. So we talked him into moving in with my family.

I came home and got to work. Our oldest son moved out to share a house with his sister and make more room for Dad. We cleared out our son’s bedroom and one other room in the house so Dad could bring what he wanted to fill those two rooms. We installed a chair lift on our stairs and rearranged our kitchen to make things easier for him. And I cleared my calendar of everything non-essential for two months so we could all make the adjustment of him living with us.

After accomplishing all of that, my siblings, youngest son, and I descended on Dad’s house and began the moving process. Discarding things he didn’t want to move, packing things he did, preparing the house to go on the market to sell. After a week of hard work, the five of us caravanned down to my home in North Carolina. My brother had to return early the next morning to Ohio, but my sister stayed for a few days to help us unpack and settle.

And the reality of what life was going to look like set in. By mid-afternoon that first day in North Carolina, we called an ambulance to take Dad to the emergency department.

Over the next three months, he visited the hospital more times than I want to remember. He entered a skilled nursing facility on Christmas Eve and continued to flip between the nursing facility and the hospital. The full magnitude of his health concerns threatened to overwhelm us. But I wouldn’t trade those long, difficult months for anything.

I wrote most of what you will read in the days ahead before Dad came to live with me. You’ll read stories of how the shadow of death inserted itself into my life in different ways over the years. In November 2018, he came back again and sat himself down at my kitchen table. Uninvited. Unwanted. Obtrusive. Ominous.

How did I deal with that? That’s what this devotion is all about.

1 Thessalonians 1:3

We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

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1 Peter 5:8-11

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Day 2

The apostle John records Jesus saying in John 10:10, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. The shadow of death wanted to steal precious moments with my father. He strived to kill the dreams I had of what life with Dad would look like, destroy my hope, and turn Dad into a burden.

I won’t deny that I got tired, but I refused to let the shadow win. I determined to spend time with Dad and resolved to enjoy the moments we had, even if they didn’t look like I’d pictured before the move.

My family joined me, giving me heaping portions of grace. They picked up some of my chores to keep the household functioning, and they tolerated more