Call and Answer

A soldier sits on a step with his back against a wall. The shelling has stopped for the moment, and the question on his mind is whether anyone knows where he is.

If you trace this promise through Scripture, you will find it keeps taking the same shape: God comes to be with His people in the middle of the danger. In Isaiah He promises, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee." In the fiery furnace in Babylon, a fourth man is in the fire, walking with the other three. Nebuchadnezzar himself reports, "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt." Jesus ends Matthew's Gospel with "lo, I am with you alway." And before Jesus was born He was given the name "Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." It is the same promise every time.

So read carefully what God promises here: "I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him." There are four promises, and the second one admits something. Trouble is coming, and you will be inside it when help arrives. The verse before tells you who this is spoken over: "he hath set his love upon me," and "he hath known my name." This is not a lucky charm to carry in your pocket. It is a covenant with a God you know.

So pray it plainly, the way you would talk to a person: Lord, here is the thing, in the words I really use for it. Here is the fear underneath it, which is not the same as the thing itself. I am not going to ask for the rescue first. I am asking You to come in here with me. You promised an answer, and You promised to be with me while I wait for it. Today I will take Your company. Amen.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 42 is A Man of Unclean Lips (Isaiah 6:5).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna