PSALM 40:1-2 – I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
THEME OF THE DAY. THE GOD OF RESCUE. Every Christian knows about “spiritual rescue” from the hand of God. It began at salvation. Is not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ a message of rescue from Satan, sin, and self? We may call it “deliverance” but it really is a work of rescue. The Apostle Paul writing to the Colossians, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). But “spiritual rescue” doesn’t just occur at salvation. Think about our lives. How many times have we felt like the Apostle Paul in his opening remarks to the Corinthian believers – For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again” (2 Corinthians 1:8-10)? He was “drowning” and felt it deep inside his very being. He remembered that the God of spiritual rescue had delivered him in the past and will do so in the present and future. And this God of spiritual rescue will do so in our lives too. Just as He did in today’s scripture and as He does this work of “spiritual rescue”, there are two things David models for us as we wait upon Him.
First, we are called to wait on the God of rescue and that with patience. Yes, I know. This is hard. Very hard and especially when we feel the floodwaters of life rising up to our neck! But God often delays His rescue in our lives, not because He enjoys seeing us flounder, but to do two things; make us long more for Him and teach us the necessary discipline of submission to His “waiting will.” We may quickly know how we are doing in the “school of submission” by either our growth in patience waiting on God or our complaining impatience with God. Remember, He will make us flounder but He won’t let us drown. He loves us too much.
Another thing David models as a believer waiting upon the God of rescue to come to his aid in life’s trials and temptations is prayer – real prayer, pleading prayer, desperate pray. The scripture doesn’t say, “And David prayed to the Lord.” It says, “He cried out”. God will teach us to pray, really pray, and it won’t be when life is easy and manageable. We learn to pray when the “bottom drops out” of life. It is when we are absolutely convinced of our spiritual bankruptcy and total inability to cope and handle life, we learn to cry out in prayer. And as that starts to develop in our lives, the God of spiritual rescue comes to us with sustaining and delivering grace.
God is our God of spiritual rescue. As we praise Him for being such, let us also understand our responsibilities to Him as we wait upon Him to be such a rescuing God to us.
PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for Your rescuing grace that is always there when I need it.”
QUOTE: “Don’t presume upon God’s grace. Rest and rejoice in His grace.”