But God Is Our Deliverer

In moments of despair, confusion, or darkness, it’s only natural to wonder if God is paying attention. In honesty, sometimes you ask him, “Hey, God is there any kind of plan here?” Or, “God, do you realize what’s about to happen—to me?”

That’s when we need to cling to a “but God” faith, where we believe things may look bad, but God is working it for good. Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!

Sometimes what comes after the “but God” in our flesh and bone grammar, comes immediately; sometimes it may be years before we see the end of the sentence God is writing with our lives.

But that doesn’t mean God has abandoned our story.

God uses the initial part of the sentence, before the words that follow “but God” are revealed, to develop in us the faith of certainty in his sovereignty and grace.

We may be hard pressed on every side, but God keeps us from being crush; perplexed, but God lifts us from the pits of despair; persecuted, but God stands by our side; struck down, but indestructible because we’re filled with the incorruptible Spirit of God, and greater is he within us than he who is in the world (2 Corinthians 4; 1 John 4:4).

And each time we face a “God, what’s the plan here” moment, we’re stronger in our certainty that we’re nearing the “but God” in the sentence and that what’s on the other side of the situation-changing comma will be the rest of the story, unfolding for God’s glory which includes his plans of good for us (Jeremiah 29; Romans 8:28).

Along the way we change; we no longer see the need to know how we’ll be delivered, or if we’ll even be delivered. We come to know that, no matter how the sentence ends, it includes the phrase, “but God is our Deliverer.”

We reach our objective-in-Jesus to seek his face, and not what’s in his hand; we seek the Giver, not the gift; and, during the pause before “but God,” we find ourselves falling in love with God all over again.

Jon Walker is the author of “Growing with Purpose: Connecting with God Every Day.”