I believe that God does deliver us from immediately...sometimes.
I know people who had horrible addictions and God delivered them in a miraculous way.
I have seen this happen in my own life. I have also seen the grace of God guide a person thru difficult waters without deliverance.
They struggle. They fall, and get up and go on. And God leads and guides.
There was a time in my life when I didn’t understand that. Why didn’t God just poof stuff away?
Then the more I reflected the more I searched scripture and I see in scripture the Grace of God in action in the life of Paul.
Paul says in the book of Titus that the Grace of God that brings salvation teaches us… (
Titus 2:11-12)
So I began to see Paul’s words in the light of Paul’s life.
I believe this is Paul’s thorn in the flesh. I have no proof and it certainly is no point of doctrine but this is my personal belief and it has meant a lot to me.
Paul was arrogant. He was harsh at times and self-justified in actions that can only be viewed as inflexible.
Paul says in one place that he “withstood Peter to his face” There was a conflict and Peter was wrong and Paul was right, but the indication is that this happened in public and it was ugly.
In another place we learn that Paul and Barnabas had a falling out over John Mark. The guy who eventually wrote the book of Mark.
Mark was young and Barnabas saw something in him that made him want to work with the kid. Barnabas invited Mark to make a missionary journey. Things got hard and Mark started complaining. Paul was NOT kind. In the end Barnabas and Paul had a serious falling out. They went in different directions because Paul had no time for a snot nosed kid.
But at the end of Paul’s life we see something very different. We see him saying “send John Mark to me for he is profitable for me”. ME. PAUL. Paul needed this man whom he had not been willing to help.
There was a shift over the life of Paul that softened that hardness that caused Paul grief. I think Paul knew about this thing. I think that is what Paul was praying that God would deliver him from and what God simply told him that His Grace would suffice.
Paul needed to walk thru that trial and not simply be delivered. It is instructive. WE have difficulties that we are not delivered from. That we must walk thru. God’s Grace is there. It bring salvation, but it also is instructive in our daily lives if we will bend ourselves to its instruction.
Does God deliver? Certainly. Does God deliver by his Grace, thru the fire that Peter talks of? Without question.
Threaded Mode
