Rescue... the Godly?

Daily Reading:  2 Peter 2

Scripture Focus: The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. (2 Peter 2.9)

Devotional Thought: Many of us are familiar with the song, Rescue the Perishing, but today's scripture says that "the Lord knows how to rescue the godly."  

Two thoughts from this verse:

·       The Lord rescues the godly from trials.  We all face trials.  Even the godly go through them.  We are not assured at what point along the trial that God will rescue us.  Some are rescued from a trial before it even starts – God preventing them from entering it.  (Only in heaven will it be revealed what God has rescued us from!)  Others are rescued at some point in the trial.  We are refined in the fires of suffering and persecution and come through it better men and women.  Still others are only rescued after the trial has run its course, God saving them from bitterness, defeat, and death.

·       The Lord keeps the unrighteous for a future day of judgment.  I am not the judge, jury, and executioner.  Neither are you.  God is.  We don’t have to execute justice on anybody.  We don’t have to harbor thoughts of “one day they will get their just dues!”  We can leave that in the Lord’s hands.  He knows just how to do it.  He is faithful.  May grace be given to those who oppose him – on this side of Judgment Day – and may they find salvation.

I am so glad that the grace, the love, the strength of Jesus will rescue us from any trial we face, and ultimately from the great trial:  We will be numbered with that multitude, “the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7.14).  Hallelujah!

Prayer: "Some through the waters, some through the flood, Some through the fire, but all through the blood; Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song, In the night season and all the day long."  Amen.  (George Young)

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 58.9-11

9 Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

10 The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.

11 Mankind will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth."