I am a Christian, a retired teacher, a mother and a grandmother. I love to read and I love the Lord Jesus Christ! Unless otherwise specified ,all visual illustrations are from the YOU VERSION APP of the Bible.
If you look carefully at the image of the fortress, you will see that it appears to be built among the rocks. That large structure is not moving! It isn’t going to go anywhere any time soon. That’s why when we call on God to be our fortress, we need to run to Him. Then He surrounds us with His protection, but first we have to go into the safety that He has provided for us. God rescues us when we run to him for the protection He already has available for us.
I am sure that if you are like me, you spend a lot of time talking to God, telling Him your problems and challenges and then waiting for an answer from Him. Sometimes, in fact a lot of times, I get impatient waiting for the answer and try to help God out. He doesn’t need my help. He just needs me to believe and to wait.
This verse says WHEN they call on Him, not if we call on Him. The expectation from God is that we will call on Him and His reply is that He will answer. He will be with us and will rescue us. I think the honor part comes in when others see that we trusted in God and He answered. All glory goes to the Father!
It is important that before we go before the throne of God with our petitions, we know what His will is. So, how do we do that? We have to immerse ourselves in His Word in order to discover what His will is. We have to have a relationship with Him in which we talk to Him daily and wait for Him to speak to us. Instead of a one-sided wish list that we present rapidly just before we get on with the busyness of our day, we need to take time to just sit in His presence and hear Him clearly. God wants a relationship with each of us, not a bunch of whiners who treat Him as though He is the genie in a bottle who will grant all of our wishes. We need to be aware of how our prayers will affect others and know that God is not just hearing our petitions but also those of millions of others (hopefully) and He has to take into account everyone all at the same time. My finite mind cannot even conceive of such power but God has it whether I can understand it or not, and He answers prayers according to His will. That thought brings me back to the first part of this paragraph. We discover God’s will be spending time with Him and with His Word.
The promise that God will rescue us is one that I have held on to through many years of trials and struggles. I never know what God’s rescue will look like or when it will happen, but since He promises it, I believe it. His rescue is a fact that is settled in my heart. Sometimes, I get impatient and just want God to move quickly on my behalf, but when I look back on the circumstances, I realize that His timing is always perfect, to give me and others the most benefit from His actions. God is never late but always right on time.
The promise that God’s Word does not fail goes along with the verse about His rescuing us because first we need to believe in the infallibility of His Word before we can believe in His promises to us. God said it…I believe it…thus ends the matter in my heart. Sometimes doubts try to creep in, insidiously sneaking into my mind when I least expect them. The answer is to reply with the promises of God’s Word and the steadfast belief that His Word will never fail. Never. Not once.
Notice that the Scripture does not say that the righteous will not have troubles, but that the Lord will rescue us every time we do have troubles. Every time! That is quite a promise and one of my new favorite verses.
Everyone who has ever been in a difficult or dangerous situation wants to be rescued from it, not left in it. But what does rescue look like?
The Bible promises that God will rescue His people from their troubles. Does that mean that our Sovereign Lord makes all of our troubles go away? I’m sorry to have to say that it does not. Sometimes rescue means that we plod through the troubles, but in my experience, it is me who changes, not the troubles. I see them in a different light, in the light of who God is and how He is with me and the troubles that are still there become smaller and almost non-existent. That is a kind of rescue that is not expected but for me it has always been welcome. It’s also impossible to say when and how God will show up to rescue us. He turns up in the most creative ways possible, sometimes in the form of a stranger who offers a helping hand and sometimes in the form of a Bible verse that the Holy Spirit brings to our minds to comfort us and to get us thinking on the right track. God promises to rescue, that is true. But our part is to be ready to be rescued in a way that may not be exactly what we thought it would be and to accept that rescue for what it is. The alternative is to wallow in our problems, throw a pity party and hope that someone will join us in that miry mess. I have found in my long life that many times the troubles I need to be rescued from are due to my own poor choices. Yet, in spite of me, God shows us and rescues me, sending help just when I’m ready to give up. God is always on time, just not always on our timetable that we like to set for Him.
God will always bear our burdens but we have to give them to Him. He doesn’t reach down and grab them from us. Sometimes, in my own stubbornness, I have been absolutely determined to bear my own burdens, thinking that my own ingenuity and cleverness will get me out of the mess that I created and too proud to ask God for help. However, once I have decided that I cannot do it on my own, that I need His help and turn the burden over to Him, then He can take it away, lighten the load and show me how to carry a much lighter burden instead. God is ready to daily take on whatever troubles us, but we need to ask Him to do so instead of being self-sufficient. After all, our Creator knows what is best for us, if we would just acknowledge His wisdom and move on in His way rather than following our own path.
I pray that everyone will have a wonderful day, blessed in the knowledge of how very much God loves each of us and wants to take our burdens away and rescue us from our troubles.
My whole thinking about this verse has changed, I think, because I have had a heart change. When I read this verse previously, I was exultant, much as one would be when a fierce enemy is defeated. Now, I read the verse and I am saddened to think that so many will perish in their sins, lost and without hope for all eternity. Instead of praying for Jesus to return quickly, I am praying for Him to tarry so that others may be saved.
Jesus did not want sinful men to perish. Instead, He desired that we become workers in the harvest fields, telling the lost about the way to be saved.
I like the way this verse is written in The Message because it is forthright and easy to understand. We don’t have to have a lot of knowledge in order to share about Jesus. We just need to keep what we say simple…who Jesus is (the only Son of God) and what He did (died for our sins). We can use various scriptures (like the “Roman Road”) or even our own testimony. The important thing is that we share. Refer back to the first Scripture. If we don’t share, then they die in their wickedness and are lost forever. Sobering thought, isn’t it? It is an awesome responsibility that the Lord left us, but He also gave us a Helper, His Holy Spirit, to guide our words and our steps towards the people who need Him in their hearts. We need to be obedient because I truly believe that the time is shorter than it has ever been before. I am no longer willing to sit back and gleefully look forward to God’s judgment on sinful men. I must, you must, we all must, hear the call of the Lord and rescue them, as much as it is in us to do so. We have to share the Gospel in the hope that some will repent and be saved.
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