Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me. -Psalm 50:15
As a child, did you break a toy, tried and tried to fix it yourself until you realized you couldn’t? You then ran to your dad expecting him to fix it immediately so you could play with it again? But instead, he asked you to wait, and then it seemed like forever before he finally fixed it? Dr. Snyder explains why our Heavenly Father sometimes keeps us waiting when coming to our rescue.
“God has rescued and delivered people from literally every sort of evil or human impossibility. But the real test comes when we do call on him in trouble, expect his rescue, and trust that he’ll come to our aid as promised, but he seemingly doesn’t. He appears to be just sitting idly on the sidelines watching and not lifting a finger to help.
Does this describe your situation?
If so, there are a few things to remember. It’s God who defines the extent of the promise to deliver in times of trouble, not us. We aren’t the ones to decide just how and when he’s going to step in and make things better. If so, God wouldn’t be God; he would be a genie in a bottle. God knows how to rescue, but he also knows when not to rescue if a too-quick deliverance would run against his purpose. There is something important he wants to accomplish by bringing difficulties into our lives. And until that’s accomplished, he’ll allow the trouble to continue.
…We have every right to expect him to come and help in times of trouble, but we can’t prescribe the when and how. That’s for him to decide, and it’s all based on a purpose that overarches our lives and far exceeds our own puny plans. He won’t compromise his plan in order to accommodate ours, simply because his is infinitely better for us.”
TODAY’S PRAYER: Remember, if it takes one hundred days or two hundred days, God will never modify his schedule in order to win our vote. Pray for his strength to go the distance and, in doing so, to win the prize of his deliverance.
Photo via Flickr
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