Deliver

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and He delivers them.~Psalm 34:7

As I was reading my Bible tonight, God led me to do some quick word meaning studies and the Holy Spirit showed me something awesome.

Encamp - to pitch a tent, abide. So when God sends his angels to surround you, it isn't a temporary assignment, but their new full time job. As God's messengers, it is now in their job description to surround you, to protect you from the enemy and his schemes until God gives them a new assignment.

Deliver - The definition of this word is multifaceted. The main definition is to remove or withdrawal. I think when most people read this they think about God removing them from a difficult circumstance or making things easier for them (or maybe this is just what we want to think, because face it, it'd be nice if God would just pick us up from the middle of our struggle and remove us from it completely.) The secondary definitions include to equip and to make strong. So in this verse God is promising to equip us and make us strong for the battle and not simply to remove us from it. He is giving us strength to fight, strength to stand against whatever arrows the devil wants to throw our way.  Because deliverance is not just about getting out of the trouble we are in, but learning to fight our way through it in the strength that God gives us. Because the fighting makes us ready for the next battle. Learning to trust God more grows us and stretches us to become more like Jesus intends for us to be.

So today, I will trust God, knowing that when I am in the middle of a struggle, he is delivering me, equipping me and giving me the strength to be victorious.