Deliverance Through the Storm

When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.  ISAIAH 43:2 NLT

Yea, though I walk through the valley…   PSALM 23:4

Sometimes God delivers us “out of” our trials, as in the Old Testament account of Lot (See Genesis 19). God removed Lot out of the city entirely, so that He could carry out Divine judgment. Total change in circumstances. Picked up by the scruff of the neck and removed. That’s my kind of deliverance!

Other times, maybe even most times, God delivers us in our trials, rather than out of. Think Noah and a big boat (See Genesis 6-9). Noah went through the flood, through the 40 days and 40 nights and maybe some what-if filled nights. He endured the torrential downpour along with the eerie blackness of an “instant” ocean with zero land, for even the possibility of a safe-spot. Yet, God brought Noah safely through the flood.

Is the LORD delivering you right there in the midst of a “storm” rather than removing you from it? Has He provided His supernatural strength and grace to cope with an impossible or hopeless appearing circumstance, rather than altering your circumstance? Is He offering you His peace and divine protection, enabling you to walk through the fire rather than quenching the fire?

I know it’s hard. I believe the Greek word I’m looking for is “stinketh.” It just really stinks to walk through storms. But it’s also an opportunity.

An opportunity to learn first-hand, the reality of God’s faithfulness and His ability to provide all we need, in every circumstance. Not to necessarily remove our difficulties, but to walk us through them. Though we may have read of His power and faithfulness in the pages of Scripture, or heard about it in a sermon podcast, now we know it by experience. Priceless treasure that cannot be taken from us.

Allow me to encourage you … in the midst of your questions, and your storm … trust Him. Hold on to what you know to be true of Him. He will not fail you or forsake you. He will make a roadway in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. His deliverance may very well be through your storm rather than out of it.

There is no circumstance, no trouble, no testing, that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose.  

Alan Redpath

Father God,   Open our eyes to Your deliverance. We know You are faithful, regardless of what we see with our eyes or feel with fickle emotions. No storm is more than we can bear, through Your grace, strength and power. Your grace is sufficient, your strength is perfect. In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen

Written by Becky White for the Lord Jesus

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