Daily Devotional For Saturday, March 29, 2025
Hooray! The weekend is here. You hopefully get a little reprieve and rest. The Bible is full of deliverance stories. Daniel in the lion’s den, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace, the Hebrews taking the Promised Land, Esther against Haman, Jesus’ family fleeing to Egypt, and others. We love these stories because we tend to highlight the miraculous and divine intervention and miss the whole point of these stories. We want to focus on the intervention, not the Intervener; we want to focus on them being saved, not the Savior.
The Bible contains many stories of deliverance. The greatest is the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross, which changed the destiny of humanity. There is the deliverance of the Hebrew slaves from the brick pits of Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey. There are accounts of personal deliverance from unclean spirits, debilitating medical conditions, and destructive behaviors.
Every follower of Jesus has a deliverance story, too—from the kingdom of darkness into God’s Kingdom of light. The Bible teaches that we have a responsibility to tell other people about how good God has been to His people throughout the generations. Let’s not just gobble up His blessings as if we somehow earned them. When we experience God’s goodness and His help, let’s acknowledge that to others and serve Him with a heart of gratitude.
Had the Lord not intervened, all of us would be on our way to Hell. So, we have nothing to boast about except to boast in the Lord. Everything good in our lives is by His hand, not ours. We tend to boast in our own achievements and possibly give the Lord a little sidebar. Yes, you may have gone to college and got a degree, yes you may have worked hard, but with the mind, intelligence, skills and abilities from the Lord, that would not have been possible. This is the point of James 1:17, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (NASB).
So, maybe we all need to give God more credit than we give ourselves. Yet, we often do not see nor praise the hand of God in our lives when things are good, let alone when the news is bad. Author John Feinberg tells the story of when his wife, Pat, was diagnosed with Huntington's Chorea.
“This is a genetically-transmitted disease that causes deterioration in the brain, thus causing deterioration of physical and psychological abilities. John and Pat were not only concerned about the future of her health, but the health of their children. If one parent has the gene that causes Huntington's, children of that parent have a 50-50 chance of suffering from the same disease. What was also troubling to John was that they had no warning that Huntington's was a possibility for Pat—and they should have been warned.
Soon after the diagnosis, they requested a copy of Pat's mother's medical chart to see if there was any family history of the disease, and Pat's mother had suffered from Huntington's unbeknownst to the family. Feinberg was angry, realizing this diagnosis came five years before he met his wife. It could have altered everything! But Feinberg writes of his realization that the hidden knowledge was a gift of grace from God: For twenty years that information had been there, and at any time we could have found it out. Why, then, did God not give it to us until 1987?
As I wrestled with that question, I began to see his love and concern for us. God kept it hidden because he wanted me to marry Pat, who is a wonderful wife. My life would be impoverished without her, and I would have missed the blessings of being married to her had I known earlier.
God wanted our three sons to be born. Each is a blessing and a treasure, but we would have missed that had we known earlier. And God knew that we needed to be in a community of brothers and sisters in Christ at church and at the seminary who would love us and care for us at this darkest hour.
And so he withheld that information, not because he accidentally overlooked giving it to us, and not because he is an uncaring God who delights in seeing his children suffer. He withheld it as a sign of his great care for us. There is never a good time to receive such news, but God knew that this was exactly the right time” (Source, John Feinberg, The Many Faces of Evil, pp. 264-265).”
A lot of people, including Christian people, would become bitter over something like this. John and his wife Pat eventually came to see this Huntington's Chorea Disease as a good gift from the Lord. It all comes down to attitude at times. In the words of Julius Campbell to his football teammate Gary Bertier in the movie, Remember The Titans, , “Attitude reflects leadership.” John realized this and stepped up to the challenge to lead his family with a biblical and godly response. This makes me think of Philippians 2:5, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus” (NASB),
Questions To Consider
- How frequent and intentional are you to give God all the credit for all the good in your life?
- In Genesis 50:20, Joseph said these words to his 11 brothers,”As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive” (NASB). Looking back over your life, what is a situation like this in your own life where you now see the good? What did you learn from this?
- What times in your life, other than your salvation experience, can you say that God intervened in your life and saved or rescued you or someone you love?
- How is attitude leadership?
- Sharing your personal stories of God’s deliverances opens a door of hope for others to experience the deliverance they might need. Would you do that? If so, when?
Scripture To Meditate On: Psalm 119:71,”It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Heavenly Father, thank You for Your grace, mercy, and deliverances to my life—You have lifted me from despair and given me hope. Today, I offer myself as a living sacrifice, so I may bring glory and honor to Jesus’ name. Give me courage to persevere, wisdom to follow, and boldness to tell of all Your deliverances so Your will can be done in the lives of others. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly