The LORD Delivers from all Afflictions
As we approach Holy Week we lift up our eyes to see what God has finished once and for all. As we prepare for Holy Week we prepare our hearts to reflect on the hard truth that it was our sins that brought our Heavenly Father’s wrath upon the only Innocent Man to ever live upon the earth. As we walk these final days of Lent prior to Palm Sunday we are reminded again that God gives His Word, His Promise to deliver us once and for all from all that assaults us in body, mind, heart and soul.
I have had the opportunity to utlize my time of prayer and fasting each day in Lent of 2015 to have “more time with Jesus” and give thanks for the many things He has delivered us from.
While you are battling obstacles, challenges and heart-breaking scenarios in your life, I give thanks that God gives us His Promise to deliever us out of all of them, once and for all as we hear the psalmist testify to in Psalm 34.
Psalm 34:4-9, 19, 22 (ESV)
4 I sought the Lord, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them. 8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! 9 Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints, for those who fear Him have no lack! … 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. … 22 The Lord redeems the life of His servants; none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.
As a pastor, there is nothing greater than the Good News God finished for us, once and for all when He delivered us from all of our fears, shame, poverty, troubles, danger, afflictions…He delivers us from Death itself! Jesus took our Heavenly Father’s wrath toward us upon Himself, willingly, once and for all at the Cross on Good Friday. Thanks to Jesus, I can honestly share with people who are hurting, broken and dying that God has finished the war to make all things new, to make them NEW through Jesus Christ our Savior. As we prepare our eyes, minds, hearts and souls for this upcoming Holy Week may we continue to remember and share the blessed hope found only in God’s Word, God’s FINISHED Promise: The LORD delivers from ALL afflictions. What a blessing and a gift to receive this every day of our lives on earth. What an opportunity we have, especially in the next week and a half to share this just as we received it, freely in Jesus Christ alone.
In Christ,
Pastor Ben
