Thursday, September 06, 2007

God's Presence 17: Deliverance


One of the desires we have when we are under attack or in a trial is to be delivered from this trial. Most of us want to be delivered "now." But God has His own timing for our own good. As Brother Lawrence reminds us in his book, p. 53: "I cannot thank God enough for the way He has begun to deliver you from your trial. God knows very well what we need and that all He does is for our good. If we knew how much He loves us, we would always be ready to face life--both its pleasures and its troubles."
Peter challenges us in this thinking as well, as we read in the Bible from 1 Peter 1:6-8, "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy." While God will deliver us from our trials and burdens, God will often let trials come into our lives for a purpose. Brother Lawrence says it like this: "You know, the difficulties of life do not have to be unbearable. It is the way that we look at them--through faith or unbelief. We must be convinced that our Father is full of love for us and that He only permits trials to come our way for our own good."
The only way that we can become convinced of this, is to follow God and know God more and more. The longer we know God, and the better we know God, the more history we will have to experience God's power, love, and faithfulness in our lives.
As you go through the trials of life, trust in God, and God will deliver you in due time!