Thoughts on Today's Verse...
God doesn't just hear our cries for deliverance; he also sends us powerful deliverers! God sent Moses in response to the Israelites' cries from Egypt (Exodus 3:1-9). God sent David in response to Goliath's ridicule of God's people by the Philistines (1 Samuel 17:1-50). God also sent Jesus in response to his people's cries for deliverance from bondage to the evil prince of darkness (John 3:16-17; Romans 5:6-11). God built his new Kingdom of deliverance on love — the sacrificial love of a Savior who not only conquered death for us but also brought us "life and immortality" through his deliverance of us. Jesus is not only our rescuer (who saves us FROM something horrible — sin, death, Satan, and hell), he is also our Savior (who saves us FOR something as well — to be blessing others with Jesus' love and grace) (Ephesians 2:1-10). God has brought us from darkness to light and from death to life in the Kingdom of his beloved Son!
My Prayer...
Loving and eternal God, in Jesus, you reached down to my limited and mortal world and rescued me from its bondage to mortal limits. Thank you for breaking the stranglehold of death on me and freeing me from my slavery of sin and bondage to Satan. Thank you for using love to break down the barriers that kept me from you. Thank you! You have "rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son" you love and who saves us! I offer my thanks, service, and praise in Jesus' name. Amen.
