As a man with a wife and four children preparing for a year in Iraq, we prayed for my physical safety. But what is more of a miracle? To save the body or the soul? God has delivered my soul from death. Not only does this show his love for me, but also shows his power. He has rescued me from eternal death to eternal life by going there himself and fetching me out.
God does not promise that I will never suffer bodily harm, but by already giving me new life in Christ he has demonstrated his power to save to the uttermost. Since he loves me enough to sacrifice his only Son on my behalf, I know that he will always do what is best for me. I don’t know if that means physical safety, but I know that he is capable of keeping me safe in the midst of danger.
I know that my Lord will go anywhere that I am. If the very constraints of death itself cannot hold him back from what the Father has purposed, certainly on this earth there is no obstacle he cannot overcome.
Feeling the assurance that my Heavenly Father will never let go of me and being comforted in the knowledge of his spiritual and emotional provision for me, still I am surprised that a prevailing anxiousness builds on the horizon.
I know that I am heading into a test of my faith; my greatest fear is that of failing. I fear the possibility that my thoughts and actions might soil the name of the One who called me by my name and forgave me. But I know that my God has delivered my feet from falling in the past and will again. I know that he is watching every step I take. I will walk before my Lord in the land of the living.
Lord, keep my feet from stumbling as I walk the path you have set for me as a follower of Christ.
“Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you. For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living.” (Psalm 116:7–9)