Good Use of Trouble

Psalm 91:14-16 in the KJV says this, “Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known My name.  He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him My salvation.”

The word that appears twice here is the word DELIVER, both in verse 14 AND 15.  However, there is different meaning of each word.
In verse 14 the word “deliver” means, “to step out; escape.”
In verse 15 the word “deliver” means, “to pull off, equip, strengthen.”

The promise is, “I will deliver.”

Yet how many of us know that often times it doesn’t quite feel as though we have escaped or been helped to “step out of” any hard circumstance?

The second word “deliver” can be likened to being lifted out of a pit, or dragging up out of the midst of anything that surrounds a person, and then settling him in some place of safety.

Sometimes God chooses to deliver us by taking the burden off our backs, and yet other times He makes us strong enough to carry it.

My commentary says, “The serpent may still wound our heel, but if God be with us He will give us strength to press the wounded heel on the malignant head, and we can squeeze all the poison out of it.”

I cannot think of anything better than God’s promise of presence and of deliverance.
“I will be with Him in trouble… I will deliver him.”

And so I pray to see things differently.
His promise for deliverance may be found in the strength He provides.  That even in the trials, though escape may not be my experience, fruitful endurance will be the result if I set my “love upon Him” and “call on Him” for help.

The promises I can hold on to are:

• We have access to God by way of prayer.
• We have the availability of His presence and the promise to never be alone.
• We have Him as a Deliver for all the evil we will ever face.
• Not only will He deliver us from evil, He will turn it to good.
• Troubles are purposed to refine us and make us more like Him!

We have a Purifier… a Refiner… One who cleanses and purges and transforms us into His likeness by-and-by.  (Heb 12:10, “…He {is} for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness.”

I make good use of trouble when it brings me closer to the Father.