"Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God."
Psalms 69:1-3
Perhaps we all have times in our lives when we feel this way--kind of spiritually drowning. And, as the weariness and waiting implies, God doesn't always save us right away. There are experiences and hardships that we need to go through and learn from... part of the overall plan of life.
A couple of things about that though... first, we often feel overwhelmed when we are learning something new or trying something we don't understand fully. We cry when we can't learn to tie our shoes or memorize our times tables... but a parent that would save children from those things could be doing them a disservice later. God's goal *is* our happiness, but not necessarily our immediate, temporary happiness. Rather, he always does what will help us to be happy in the very very long term--the eternities. That difference in perspective sometimes puts us at odds with God, and we essentially cry out asking if he loves us and wants us to be happy, why isn't he saving us now. And from his higher and longer perspective he looks back and says, of course, and I am... because he is saving us right now, in every breath. This is what saving looks like.
We don't always enjoy being saved. The ancient Israelites balked at it a lot, and Laman and Lemuel weren't fans either. And the promised land often looks a lot like a wilderness and a lot of work. It is hard for us to see past that, and realize why things happen the way they do, but God can see it all, and we are in his hands. He tries to show us some of that in the scriptures... the long term stories of generations of people being saved beginning with one person, touched by God. Today, let's look around at our lives and consider the idea that God is saving us right now. Maybe it will help us to see salvation where we could only see obstacles before.
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