When You Want Deliverance from but God Delivers You Through

Have you ever been so frustrated or desperate that you threw up your hands and yelled, “Deliver me”?

You or a loved one is still slogging through extended illness. Your prodigal son still doesn’t call. Your work or finances are impossibly snarled. Whatever your burden, it penetrates your chest, pushing air out of your lungs in a heart cry for deliverance.

Charles Spurgeon once wrote, “My situation is urgent, and I cannot see how I will ever be delivered. Yet this is not my concern, for He who made the promise will find a way to keep it.”

I wish I could say I was that noble and yielded to God. But, often as not, when I yearn for deliverance, I pray something like this: “God, really? Still?” (or “Again?”) “If all this is part of character building, could You at least give me a break from it? Or wrap this up already? Tell me what lesson I’m missing, and I’ll go with it.”

John Piper said it more gracefully. “How do you do heart work when the heart is under siege and ready to fall?”

The biblical definition of deliverance is “rescue, liberation from.” Merriam and Webster add “release from captivity or oppression” and “salvation” to their definition.

That sounds great, right?

But the mighty word “deliverance” becomes a boulder in our path when we don’t recognize what God says about deliverance from versus deliverance through.

We always want deliverance from.
We expect no less from an omnipotent God. We quote verses like 1 John 4:4 to back up our stance. Deliverance from is complete deliverance out of something: the Israelites’ freedom from Egypt’s bondage, Jesus’ finished work on the Cross that delivered us from an eternity apart from God.

We’re not so keen on deliverance through.
We’ll take it in a pinch while questioning why God doesn’t do better than that. Even if we think of verses to support the notion of deliverance through, they don’t comfort us like Red Sea verses that demonstrate deliverance from.

Deliverance through is a distant option B because some part of us knows our circumstances may not change, and deliverance through doesn’t promise that. Instead God says, “Trust me. I am with you, walking beside you through this.”

Deliverance from is all God.
We’re incapable of contributing to the effort. Deliverance from is a result of an unconditional promise from God.

In contrast, deliverance through co-opts us into a joint venture with God to further His plans.
Deliverance through is one way God says, “If you trust Me and work with Me through this, I’ll make things happen that you can’t imagine.”

Deliverance through comes with conditions.

Honestly, we’d rather opt for the unconditional. We want gain without pain. Comfort and familiarity woo us. We want to call the shots. We know what we prefer, and we feel our rationale is solid. But, sooner or later, God jolts us: deliverance through involves recognizing we are His servant, not His advisor. We must decide to trust He will do whatever is best, even if we don’t understand or like the process. His plans, not ours, must guide our steps if we are to be delivered through.

More times than not, God does both.

• King Zedekiah’s “advisors” had Jeremiah thrown into a muddy cistern. Through a Cushite official, God delivered Jeremiah out of that certain death. But He didn’t deliver Jeremiah or the Israelites from deportation.
• God delivered Daniel’s friends from Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace, yet He did not deliver them from Babylonian captivity.
• Through Esther, God delivered the Hebrews from Haman’s edict that would have eradicated them. But He didn’t deliver Esther out of her isolated, exiled life in Persia, a pagan nation.

I take heart in the fact that even God’s prophets struggled with this truth at times. But we need to wrestle with it and reconcile in our hearts. Otherwise, we will lose sight of Who He is. Instead, we’ll focus on what we want Him to do for us.

Closing thoughts

• God is always the subject—and His people are always the object—of deliverance.
• Don’t lose heart in the moment in which you find yourself.
• God has not forgotten how to be gracious. Trust His timing.
• God always hears your prayers.
• Ask God what burdens are yours versus His to shoulder. Chances are you’re carrying more than He intends you to.
• God has already delivered you from an eternity of punishment and separation from Him. But, in His wisdom, He will continue His work of delivering you from and through. When He does the latter, ask Him what He wants you to learn from it and how you can glorify Him through it.
• At times, deliverance through simply means resting in Him while He works.
• Keep it real with talking to God!

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BONUS:

As I continue through a wave of trials, I cling to songs from Sight & Sound Theatre’s production of Daniel. In “Where You Are,” Daniel sings, “I want to be where You are, even if it means I’m here [in Babylon].” Daniel’s friends affirm God’s presence when they emerge unscathed from the fiery furnace (song: “In the Fire”). Sight & Sound has only a few Daniel blurbs on their site because the show is still running, but what you can see should greatly encourage you.