May 6, 2025 - Psalm‬ ‭34‬:‭19

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Psalm 34:19 ESV

Lord, we praise you that you are our deliverer! You never promised us that when we gave our lives to you that we would not face trials. Jesus, you even told us that we would face tribulation in this life, but you also told us to take heart that you have overcome the world. James tells us that we should consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds. Help us to start seeing our trials through the right eyes. We don’t want to get mad at you or blame you for them. We don’t want to complain and resist them either. We want to lean into you for your strength and wisdom on how to face them. Give us patience when they drag on longer than we think they should. Help us walk through them with your grace and trust you for our deliverance. Help us trust your ways.

Sometimes your deliverance doesn’t look like what we think it should. We would love for you to remove us from our trials or eliminate them. When your deliverance comes like that it can be something to celebrate, for sure. But often your deliverance doesn’t look like that, it looks like you carrying us through them. It looks like you deepening our relationship with you as we draw near. It looks like you strengthening us and teaching us how to fight. When we do have to battle our way through the trials with you, let us learn to celebrate those seasons too. We typically grow more and gain more when we learn to endure with you through them, than when you miraculously remove them. Either way, you are our trusted deliverer.

In Jesus name, amen.