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When God Holds Your Hand -- with Giveaway

Jennifer Cary • Aug 27, 2023

Join me today as I welcome author Jennifer Cary as she shares about her latest release. Read all the way through to find out how to enter a random drawing to win two free ebooks: The Traveling Prayer Shawl and When God Holds Your Hand.


Ever have one of those life changing events where you can pick out the exact moment things took a distinct turn?

Funny, I’ve learned that though I can, with further scrutiny, I see the groundwork laid to arrive at that moment. Let me give you an example.


I had retired from teaching in 2017 with the desire to start writing again. I prayed for six months for an idea before God dropped something amazing in my lap that became Relentless Heart (a retelling of the book of Ruth set in 1968 Vietnam and Indiana).


From there, I ended up back in touch with a dear friend who had been an editor with a well-known traditional publisher but had now started her own business. Together she guided me and by June 2019, we had a game plan that included reworking an older book, readying its sequel that set on my computer’s “shelf,” and writing a third book to make it a trilogy. The Crockett Chronicles.


We set up a schedule for release, having that first book come out in September 2019, the second in November, and the third in January 2020. That gave time to polish Relentless Heart.


However, the writing bug feasted on me.


During that year, 2020, I released something at least every other month, and wrote over half a million more words. By the end of that year, I’d released three full historical novels, one box set, and three novellas. I’d also completed writing four more novels (The

Traveling Prayer Shawl and the Weather Girls trilogy). I was energized and excited to dive into the next year of writing, beginning with a devotional titled When God Holds Your Hand.


The seed of this devotional came about years earlier as I sat in my son’s hospital room while he slept off the rest of the surgical anesthesia from his latest procedure. I read my Bible in the dim light and stumbled onto a verse that rocked my world.


Only a few days later, when I wanted to show a friend, I couldn’t remember the address. She said it sounded like Isaiah 41:10.


Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, I will also help you,
I will also uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

We looked. It wasn’t, but a few verses on I found it. Isaiah 41:13.

For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand,
Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’


Those verses got me through some very difficult times. So much so, that when I made a discovery about the pronoun use, it rocked my world for a second time.


God says He holds my right hand with His right hand.


I asked Abba to show me what all this meant and over a period of years, he revealed seven different positions for seven reasons. I held these in my heart until the excitement of sharing it in a book demanded I get it on paper.


That’s why I planned to start 2021 off writing that devotional.


Then a couple days before the new year, I had a dream. Father Time and Baby New Year were crossing a stage where they met in the middle and high fived. Father Time said, “Give’m h&#%.” Baby New Year relied, “You’re a tough act to follow.”


I woke in a sweat and did my best to convince myself it was only a bad dream. If only.

New Year’s Eve I received a call from a dear friend. My mentor (and her best friend) had been fighting the return of her breast cancer and could no longer live alone. Of course, with the holiday being a weekend, it made it difficult for my friend to find a care facility before Monday. I agreed to spend the nights with my mentor until our friend found one on Monday. They’d move my mentor on Tuesday.


After wonderful talks and laughs, everything fell into place. The last thing to handle was a COVID test.


My mentor tested positive.


So everyone assisting her tested. We were negative.


But I still had one more night.


Once home, I did all the proper procedures and moved into the guest room. Ten days later, I tested positive but had mild symptoms—ear aches and exhaustion. Three days later, my mentor passed away.


Sitting in the guest room was boring. So I started the devotional. It flowed and I was excited. Except it was short, despite being set up as a thirty-day piece. My editor suggested I add bonus material at the end. Good idea, but I didn’t know what to say.


I got better and tested negative, but the exhaustion didn’t go away.


I eventually went to the doctor. Due to a series of crazy mishaps, my bloodwork didn’t come back until early May. But when the doctor calls you himself, you know something’s up. He sent me straight to the ER. They diagnosed me with CML—chronic myeloid leukemia.


It was a gut punch. But my Bible study girls prayed over me, anointing me, and I claimed my healing. As one of them was leaving, she felt led to pray over my car.


I drove home that night just fine, but the next time I drove—blocks from my house—I was breaking at a light, third in line, when there was a sudden BAM.


I distinctly heard a voice in my ear, “This is an accident.”


Turns out I was rear-ended by a guy going ninety miles per hour who left two hundred feet of skid marks along with his stolen, over-turned Jeep.


After the jaws of life got me free, they took me to the hospital, where I learned I had a broken sternum, three cracked ribs, and a crushed vertebra between my shoulder blades. I spent five days in the hospital while the extent of the miracles involved continued being revealed.


I now had my bonus material.


However, I had to dictate it, as I wasn’t up to writing.


More miracles occurred involving the CML and medication.


I was overwhelmed. I am still as I think about it.


But God was so faithful. Besides helping me get the devotional completed and released, I launched the four completed books. The Traveling Prayer Shawl was first. I wasn’t able to do any promo work for it, I had to leave it all in God’s hands. He went above and beyond. That book, to this day, is my best seller. By word of mouth. Any time I try to do something, sales drop. But if I keep my hands off, it stays between the 100–500 ranking for Contemporary Christian Fiction. It has even done the double digits several times and reviews are very kind.


I’ve learned that if I say I’m writing for His glory, then I need to make sure I’m doing it His way. I haven’t had a productive writing year like 2020 since, even though my health is doing great—Praise God! Instead, I listen for His direction and write what He puts on my heart. It still needs editing and rewriting—sometimes I’m not listening as well as I should—but He can use my offerings for my readers good, for my good, and His glory.


Bodie Thoene once gave me a quote and I pray my writing is worthy. The ink of the scribe is as precious to the Lord as the blood of the martyr.


In Jesus’s Name.


Enter a random drawing for a copy of each of Jennifer's ebooks, The Traveling Prayer Shawl and When God Holds Your Hand. Leave a comment below, along with your cleverly-disguised email address. Example: donna AT livebytheword DOT com



About Jennifer:

Historical Christian Romance author, Jennifer Lynn Cary, likes to say you can take the girl out of Indiana, but you can’t take the Hoosier out of the girl. Now transplanted to the Arizona desert, this direct descendant of Davy Crockett and her husband of forty plus years enjoy time with family where she shares tales of her small-town heritage and family legacies with their grandchildren. She is the author of The Crockett Chronicles series, The Relentless series, and The Weather Girls trilogy as well as the stand-alone novel, Cheryl’s Going Home, her novella Tales of the Hob Nob Annex Café, and her split-time novels The Traveling Prayer Shawl and The Forgotten Gratitude Journal. Her current spin-off series, The Weather Girls Wedding Shoppe and Venue, contains standalones with a common thread.


Connecting Online: 

 website: https://www.jenniferlynncary.com 

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 Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jennifer-lynn-cary

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