Longing For Deliverance

“Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me.”
Psalm 50:15

I could say these words with conviction when there was no trouble in my life. But when trouble came and I faced the death of my children, those were the days where I needed to know what His deliverance really meant. In those days of finding out my first and then second daughter would not live, I cried out to God to deliver me from the pain and deliver my daughters from death. I wanted to be free from suffering. I wanted my daughters to live on this earth with me. I wanted it to not hurt so bad. I wanted His deliverance to look like my idea of deliverance.

My faulty idea of God’s deliverance was based on a faulty idea of who God was, and it kept me from being able to fully trust Him with my story because He didn’t work how I thought He should work. As I began to understand more of who He really is, I started to lay down my ideas for how I thought He should work. And my eyes became more fully open to what it meant that my God bends down to deliver me in my pain. A greater peace and hope began to rise in my life even though the pain was still great. He wasn’t delivering me in the ways I’d wanted Him to, but He was still at work as I called on Him, delivering me to Himself in greater ways than I could have ever imagined.

Another word often used for deliverance in the Bible is rescued. When I think of being rescued, I think of being taken from where I am in extreme danger and brought somewhere safe. I am taken out of where it is dark and brought into where it is light.

We see this depicted throughout Scripture in the ultimate promise of deliverance. It is a total and complete deliverance from death itself through Christ. Death no longer has a hold on any of those who follow Christ, and death does not and will not have the final say. (I Cor. 15:26)

These truths brought comfort to my heart when death was staring me in the face and the gravesite became a place I frequented. I needed to be reminded over and over of the ultimate deliverance that was coming. When the pain was so great it did indeed feel as though death had more power, I needed to remember that the grave does not have the final say because of the blood of Jesus.

As a result, the reality of the cross and the power of the resurrection began to hold new meaning for me. I began to understand in deeper ways what it meant that Jesus came to deliver us out of sin and all its effects, and to long and groan for Christ’s return in ways I had never experienced before the loss of my children. I was tasting the words of Paul when He says in Romans 8:22-25:

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”

I imagine, that for each one of us who sit with empty arms, our hearts ache with longing for this promise of complete deliverance and redemption more than ever before. And you must know that God is with us in the groaning. He is our refuge in the pain, and He is abundantly faithful to us even when we can’t see or feel it, or when want His faithfulness to look different. There is never a day or night when He stops coming for us and revealing Himself to us.

This groaning points to the reality that we do not have full deliverance now, but we can have hope now. It is a hope for how God wants to meet us in our pain now, and how He will fully eradicate it later.

Our deliverance can be on this side of heaven or the other. But regardless, we know that those who are in Christ are delivered. His promises are sure. His deliverance is a guarantee.

While you won’t find a passage that says, “and all children are saved,” what you will see is a profound tenderness towards infants and children in Scripture. There are several passages that allude to an infant who dies young being with God. Those passages alone do not give us concrete answers for our children, so we must look at the rich character of God when we deal with these questions (see 2 Sam 12:23, Psalm 139, Ezekial 16:4-7, Isaiah 65: 1-25, Matthew 18:3-5).

Psalm 139 is a beautiful Psalm that depicts the character of a loving God who intricately, purposely, and lovingly weaves each child in the womb of a mother. God purposefully created both you and your child. And it is only God’s grace through the blood of Jesus that can cover the sins of our children, for even they were born into sin (see Romans 3:23, Ephesians 3:23).

We can look at the character of God and conclude that somehow He has provided a way for our babies to be covered by His blood. Regardless of how God chooses to save His children, we know that it is by no merit of their own, but completely based on the mercy and grace of God.

God’s promise of deliverance is not only for us, but also for our children. God will redeem their pain and suffering and ours. The promise of redemption is for all of God’s children, including our children.

He may not deliver us from pain this side of heaven, but He will deliver us to Himself in our pain as we wait for the coming fullness of redemption.

And because of this reality, we can be thankful. Thankful for what God has done and thankful for what He has promised is coming.

As you think of the greatest deliverance that God could possibly give us and our children in the midst of the deep groan you feel in your soul, would you take some time to thank God for the ways He has delivered you to Himself and for what He has promised He still will do?

Hi! I’m Lindsey. I live in Orlando, Florida with my stud of a husband Kevin. We have three incredible children, Sophie and Dasah who now live with Jesus and Jaden who came into our lives through adoption. We have a very energetic golden retriever and love living in the sunshine state. I get to spend my days loving on my son, investing my life in college students here through a non-profit organization we’re a part of and when I have time, writing on my blog about the hope that doesn’t disappoint!

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