The Lord Delivers Us from Trouble

PRAYER PRACTICE

Spoken Prayer – Out loud, pray for God to speak to you through your reading. Praise God for giving us His word. Ask the Spirit to help you read with faith, and to live out what you hear from God through the passage.

 

DAILY READING

Psalm 34:18-22

 

DEVOTION / REFLECTION

God Keeps HIS Promises

by Pr. Dave Mann

 

Is the world a safe place?  Actually no!  None of us will get out of here alive! (That is, unless the Lord returns quickly.)

 

We believe that the Lord keeps his promises, but we need to remember to place the emphasis on the little word “his.”  God keeps the promises that he makes – not the promises that we wish he would make.  Nowhere in Scripture does the Almighty promise that his children will never have a problem in life – that he will spare us from anything and everything that we consider inconvenient.  In fact, Psalm 34 virtually guarantees that we will have difficulties.  These verses are addressed to the brokenhearted, those crushed in spirit.  The psalmist even states, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.”  (See also John 15:20; John 16:33; 2 Timothy 3:12.)

 

The Lord does not promise us a comfortable life.  What does he promise?  Deliverance.  Redemption.  Salvation.  His presence. 

 

If we are  honest, all of us know that we are going to have problems in life.  So, why are we surprised when we encounter difficulties?  To be honest, perhaps our surprise should be on the other side of life’s events.  We ought to be surprised when we have a day free from turmoil!  Our prayer of gratitude at the end of such a day should be, “Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful day, whose blessings I do not deserve.” 

 

And when we have deep challenges which threaten to crush our spirits, we can pray Psalm 34, knowing that Jesus, our elder brother, has already trodden this path of affliction.  He knows full well what suffering is -- first-hand.  In our tribulations, we can be confident that God is near us, and though our afflictions be many, we are assured of eventual deliverance and redemption. If we are misunderstood and misrepresented, we know that in the end the truth will win out.  The beauty of being a Christian is not that we will be proven right after all is said and done, but that Christ will be proven right.  After all, he is the only one who is truly innocent and righteous.  As we abide in Christ, we will share in his triumph.

 

O Jesus, you who walked the path of suffering and the cross, you know what it is to be mistreated unfairly.  Forgive me for believing that I somehow deserve to have a life free from problems.  I desire to be with you.  So, when I am brokenhearted and crushed in spirit, I pray for the joy of knowing that you are near me and that I can count on your deliverance and redemption.  In Jesus’ name I pray and live, Amen.