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“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.” (Ps 18: 16-19)

The world has turned upside down. The deep waters are raging all around us. On top of this, we know that this storm is just in its early days. How do we walk in faith when all we can think about is survival?

When Perrin was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, our world changed overnight. Our new normal was a horrible new normal. There wasn’t a playbook for how to deal with a child with cancer, so we did the best we could. Both Weezie and I instinctively turned to the Psalms. We were desperate, fighting fear and panic. The Psalms seemed to understand our fear. We allowed the words of the Psalms to become our words, and the faith of the Psalms to become the faith that was so hard for us to find. The Psalms became a refuge for us.

One word we heard is that God was a rescuer. He is an ever-present help in trouble. He reaches down and draws us out of deep waters. The truth we needed to hear was that deep waters come, even to faithful people, but that God does not abandon us to the storm. He rescues.

We learned that rescue does not always look like we imagine. If our faith is only in God providing one specific answer, it is not really faith. Though His rescue may take a different form than we desire, He knows the path to a spacious life.

In today’s storm of threatened health, lost jobs, layoffs, struggling businesses, and disrupted family life, we call on the name of the Lord. We ask Him to rescue us. We bring our fear honestly before Him and muster our small faith to rely on His goodness.

Whatever your circumstances, however high the seas are churning around you, turn to God. Turn to Him as your Rescuer, and turn to Him to rescue those around you who have it even harder than you. Now is the chance for us to unite together and support one another with prayer and acts of love. Sometimes, God’s rescue comes through other people. We can be the hands and feet bringing God’s rescue to each other.

On the other end of this crisis is a spacious place for those who trust in Him. We do not know what that place will look like, but we know who takes us there. The storms we are facing now are real, but they will not drown us, because God is our Rescuer.

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