When You Wonder if God Does What He Says He Will Do

Posted on Apr 09, 2019 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Mary DeMuth

You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked, for the Lord is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap.
—Proverbs 3:25-26

Verses like these can either be really encouraging or entirely frustrating. And when you find them in the pages of a devotional, they tend to be the latter. God will always protect, will always prevent harm. But that’s not how life ends up being, and so when we read words like this, we wonder if maybe God doesn’t do what he says he does, or maybe he simply doesn’t like us because he failed to protect.

What if there were another way to process verses like this? What if we saw them as prayers for deliverance in the midst of pain rather than prayers assuring 100% deliverance?

We are not promised an easy life. Jesus tells us we will have burdens and problems in our days, particularly if we choose to follow him. Timothy assured us that, “Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). So these verses can’t mean a get-out-of-problems-free card. No they promise something better: presence.

The promise is this: the Lord is your security.

He is your anchor, your rock, your sure place.

His presence is promised.

In the Old Testament, that presence was more fleeting—where the Spirit would fall on then off a person. But in the New Testament, we have a marvelous promise of presence.

The Holy Spirit, if you are a follower of Jesus, lives with us and even within us. Wherever we walk, we bring the Spirit with us. If we walk into danger, he is there. If we cry in the middle of the night, aching over the loss of a loved one, he is there. If we grow weary of pursuing healing and health, he stays with us. He doesn’t leave us. He doesn’t forsake us. He doesn’t despise our weakness. He doesn’t push us away in disgust when we are needy.

No, he will always be with us. He will warn us as we walk into danger. He will provide a way of escape in temptation. He will whisper words of encouragement when our own voices shout our unworthiness. He will be a companion when our own circle of companions shrinks. We are not assured an easy life, but we are given the hope of presence.

* * *

Jesus, would you help me process verses like this because there are times when you haven’t rescued me. I have been beaten down by this life, and I’m tired of living in the aftermath of other people inflicting pain on me. Yet, I want to understand what it means that you will be with me, even in the pain. Help me to remember your presence when I hurt. And instead of blaming you when hard things happen, help me, instead, to seek you and find you with me.

Amen.