When the three Hebrew children were thrown into the fiery furnace, a fourth man was there with them: Jesus! They didn’t get burned. In fact, their clothes and hair didn’t even smell of smoke. That’s the kind of deliverance God wants to bring you in your time of trial.
What is God’s motivation for wanting to deliver you? Is it because you have done something to appease him? Have you increased your prayer time? Do you spend more hours reading scripture? All this is good, but Isaiah had the true revelation when he said, “Since you were precious in my sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west” (Isaiah 43:4-5 NKJV).
This is one of the most powerful and personal messages from God in all the Bible. He is wonderfully specific in communicating his deep, eternal passion for us, his creation, his people.
“You’re about to go through fires and floods,” he says. “But don’t worry; I’ll walk with you through them all. I’ll deliver you in the end simply because you are mine. I know you by name, and you are a delight to my heart.”
He continues with a message of hope for the future. “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). After our deliverance, he promises new life in ways you can’t yet imagine!
He honors us; he protects us; he delivers us; he gives us hope. We are precious in his sight! That is the God we serve.