God promises He will deliver us. So… how is that promise working out for you? Have you asked God to deliver you, but still find yourself sick or sad or scared or stuck? If He is our Deliverer, why isn’t He delivering on His promise?

He is.

Sometimes the way God keeps His promises is painful for us. And sometimes we don’t even realize He is delivering us because we don’t recognize the way He does it.

If you are sick or sad or scared or stuck, I want to show you the ways God delivers you.

3 Ways God Delivers

1.  God Delivers FROM
Thousands of years ago, God delivered King Hezekiah from his sickbed (Isaiah 38). The king was wasting away and near death. He cried out to God. God healed. Hezekiah was delivered from his illness.

Almost ten years ago, God delivered my dad from cancer — He healed him in 2010. God used the hands of a surgeon, but beyond a doctor’s ability, God put His healing hand on my dad and removed any trace of the disease. Just like He did for King Hezekiah, God delivered him from cancer.

Sometimes that is what God does. He delivers us from something hard by removing it or preventing it in the first place. This is our favorite kind of deliverance, right? When God delivers this way, we clap and praise and brag on Him!

But, this isn’t the only way God delivers. Sometimes He doesn’t prevent the suffering and He doesn’t remove it, but that doesn’t mean He isn’t our Deliverer.

2. God Delivers THROUGH
Thousands of years ago, God delivered three Hebrew young men through a fire (Daniel 3:16–28). They refused to bow down and worship King Nebuchadnezzar. They were thrown into the furnace as their punishment and not only were they not burned, they walked right out of that fire and didn’t even smell like smoke. They were delivered through the fire.

Right now, God is delivering my friend, Rob, through cancer. Rob is still in treatment and never stops praying for healing.

God has not healed him yet. It has been over ten years since he was first diagnosed, and Rob has been a light of hope to all he meets, even through chemo, surgeries, and radiation. God is delivering Rob through cancer like He delivered the three Hebrew men through the fire.

The kind of deliverance Rob is experiencing isn’t easy — it’s painful. Even though it may not be the deliverance we would choose, it’s the kind of deliverance that brings us closer to our Deliverer.

God promises when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He is with us. That means if He is allowing us to go through it, He goes through it with us — just as He does for Rob. God will continue to be with Rob until the day He delivers Rob from or out of cancer.

3. God Delivers OUT OF
Thousands of years ago, God delivered Stephen out of his stoning and into heaven (Acts 7:54 – 60).

Stephen was falsely accused of heresy by the religious leaders, and ultimately dragged outside the city and stoned. As he was dying, Stephen asked Christ to receive his spirit. God took him out of that terror and into His presence.

If he had survived broken and bruised, we could say that God delivered him through that awful event. But, he didn’t go through it, he went out of it to heaven. It became the portal through which Stephen was ushered into a better — the best — place.

Within the last five years, God delivered my sweet friend, Genia, out of cancer and into heaven. I didn’t want Him to deliver her like that. I wanted Him to deliver her through it until He delivered her from it. We all prayed in faith that God would deliver her from cancer, but He didn’t… or did He? After a long, hard fight, God delivered Genia out of cancer and into heaven on June 6, 2012. God delivered her the same way He delivered Stephen — not from or through, but out of cancer and into the arms of Jesus.

For Genia, that had to be the best kind of deliverance. Maybe this side of heaven, we don’t see it that way. But, within a nanosecond of her arrival there, I bet she wouldn’t have had it any other way.

When you think about the different ways God keeps His promise to deliver us, can you see His deliverance in your life? Has He delivered you from something? Has He delivered you through something? Do you see how He may deliver you out of it and into a better place?

Oh my friend, maybe you have endured — or are enduring — something so awful that you are weeping right now just thinking about it, wondering why God let it happen. Why didn’t He deliver you from it?

Maybe the fact you’re reading this right now is an indication that God is still in the process of delivering you. He is delivering you through it for a purpose higher than you can even imagine. He is delivering you through it because He cares deeply for you.

I wish I knew all the answers.

The one thing I do know is this: God is our Deliverer and God does Deliver. When we can’t understand His ways, we can choose to trust His character.

How are you experiencing God’s deliverance? Please share it with us in the comments below so we can pray for each other and be encouraged.