Delivered.
- Shelbey Townsend
- Oct 4, 2023
- 7 min read
After spending time with my small nephew, I’ve stopped wondering why the Lord so often invites us to become as little children.
The innocent simplicity of their behavior acts as a goal for which we strive, what Elder Hafen described in a recent BYU devotional as ‘the simplicity beyond complexity.” Or, our soul’s state after refinement.
My nephew Hank runs toward danger. I watched him this week ask so kindly for a sucker, only to immediately stick it in his mouth and run as fast as possible in the opposite direction of anyone who would try to stop him.
I watched him climb out a kitchen window after popping out the screen with his palm. I found him in the fireplace the other day - thankfully it was unlit. The kid is barely three years old and his goose-egg count is through the roof.
Especially in the case of running with a sucker stick in your mouth, I realize he’s hurt most often when he runs away from his parents or those who keep him safe. But despite - and I would argue, indicative of - our best efforts and impeccable parenting, he is not kept from every exposure to pain and learning.
I have also noticed the few moments of the reactive process after something hard happens or he gets hurt. His first response is to find his mom or dad. Run to, cry for, seek eye contact with his mom or dad because doing that makes complete sense. He knows they love him and will help his hurt. More often than not, he mirrors their response.
In a similar way, we are growing and learning children of Heavenly Parents and we get hurt and respond similarly.
Why, in our time of hurt, would we run to the Savior? Why cry for or seek connection with someone that, to many, can seem much less tangible than a present mother or father?
I asked several people dear to me why they would run to the Savior and responses came draped in truths they’ve come to know for themselves: He knows their pain, He can heal their hurt. He’s an expert in weeping with us and helping our forward steps that work to stop our sobs.
Ultimately, the answer that was offered was simple - We run to Him in our time of trial because He will deliver.
Deliverance takes on many meanings, so I’m careful not to assign a single preposition to the Lord’s deliverance.
The God of the Old Testament is most often referenced as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The God of Abraham watched a past-tortured boy-now-father as he was asked to sacrifice His only son he’d spent a lifetime praying for.
10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
11 And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him-
The Lord delivered to Abraham and Isaac a Ram in the thicket to sacrifice instead, in what must have been a significant and tear-jerking “Well done, thou good and faithful servants” moment for both son and father.
The God of Abraham - the God of perfect timing, parenting, and resolution.
The God of Isaac used the need and desire to find His son a worthy spouse as an opportunity to change many minds and hearts. The Lord delivered Rebekah to the servant who held his peace upon meeting Rachel wondering,” to wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not.”
Rebekah delivered the water to those camels, and a witness to the servant that the Lord heard and answered his prayers.
The Servant used to camels to deliver Rebekah to his Master, and our Master delivered Isaac and Rebekah to a covenant lineage - an answer to their prayers and fulfillment of His promises to them.
The God of Isaac - the God of waiting, eternal families, and opportunity.
And The God of Jacob covers it all - a God of promises and forgiveness and brotherly kindness and covenant keeping.
Though different words were used, the God of all three of them is most evidently the God of Deliverance.
When referring to Him as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we aren’t just wasting words or trying to beef up the Bible in order to hit the word requirements on God’s grading rubric. It means far more.
It is not whose God it is, but Who God is.
One Who can both deliver us from and deliver us to.
One who can lead us from inner-city bondage into an even stickier situation - pinned between the Red Sea and an angry Egyptian Army, and do so for a wise purpose.
One who knows our hearts and character, who can deliver us to a showcased moment, helping us see that He has, in fact, saved us for “such a time as this.”
It’s not ever been about our self prescribed need for ‘deliverance’ that simply disguises our lack of eternal perspective and desire to forfeit - but always it has been about Him and His perfect love and design for us.
To limit His goodness and knowledge with faith-lacking questions that often begin with a close-minded, “Why?” hurts us far more than it can help us.
Elder Richard G. Scott offered the following in a general conference address:
“When you face adversity, you can be led to ask many questions. Some serve a useful purpose; others do not. To ask, Why does this have to happen to me? Why do I have to suffer this, now? What have I done to cause this? will lead you into blind alleys. It really does no good to ask questions that reflect opposition to the will of God. Rather ask, What am I to do? What am I to learn from this experience? What am I to change? Whom am I to help? How can I remember my many blessings in times of trial? Willing sacrifice of deeply held personal desires in favor of the will of God is very hard to do. Yet, when you pray with real conviction, “Please let me know Thy will” and “May Thy will be done,” you are in the strongest position to receive the maximum help from your loving Father.”
With these and many other Old Testament stories, deliverance is portrayed. Our appreciation for the One Who delivers heightens in our small moments of deliverance because it is often in these moments when we come to know Jesus Christ.
We would be foolish not to associate our deliverance and receiving blessings with God’s goodness and love.
However, we must be careful in assuming that a lack of expected outcomes or deliverance explains a lack of love or concern from the Creator of our souls.
My grandpa has been sick with shingles for the past several years. This reactivated form of virus has left him covered in painful rashes and blisters that have prevented him from feeling any form of physical relief for so long, that many of the second wave of cousins have never gone a family prayer without praying for grandpa to get better.
He lives with my grandma in a beautiful wooded area in a log cabin just far enough up the mountain to make friends with the deer but close enough to freeway to make it to the significant events of every one of his 38 grandkids.
After years, he’s still in pain. Though physical pain is the most evident, other pain has been felt recently with family member’s struggles and the closing of his self-made business that’s been his focus and means of providing for his family of ten children for years and years.
He serves the Lord happily in His church callings despite great difficulty, He attends the temple regularly. It hurt me to watch him kneel down last night to participate in a short family prayer before bed, you can tell how much pain his body is in. But he knelt in prayer, even making fun of my grandma’s long prayers by applauding her that the phone didn’t have to ‘go off during this one to get you to stop.’
I am no expert. But it sure doesn’t seem like he’s been delivered.
But during my grandma’s long prayer I did have a quiet thought enter my mind.
Deliverance is not circumstantial or relative, nor is it the only indicator of God’s love or disapproval.
Deliverance is a matter of eternal being. “Delivered” is who and what we are as a result of Who the Savior is and what He’s done for us.
Jesus Christ was born a carpenter. Woodworking, carving, building - familiar with the process of taking something rough with a limited purpose and converting it into something more refined, more useful.
I can't help but think that the early carpentry shop Joseph and Jesus worked in was well-kept, intentionally organized. And I doubt there were any unfinished projects lying around for very long.
That attention to detail proved more than just symbolic - He won't leave us unfinished, either.
Section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants teaches plainly that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. But another line touched my heart, and confirmed my belief:
"[Christ] Who glorifies the Father, and saves all the works of his hands..."
He Who saves - Who finishes, Who delivers - all the works of His hands, is not about to start a line of incomplete works with you.
Simply because you are a work of His, He has already delivered you.
So how do we stay faithful when small moments of relief are delayed or seemingly nonexistent? Why must we continue to have faith and live the Gospel and trust in Jesus Christ when the payout is underwhelming?
A dear friend of mine lovingly invited me to consider the alternative. As did Peter.
67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
I applaud Peter and all those whose testimony of things as they are is accompanied by the brave assessment of the alternative.
So I’d ask again, why would we run to the Savior in our time of need? Our injury is real and running to the Savior may require work that intimidates. Why would we run to Him?
The simplest response to this question let tears sting my eyes.
We run to the Savior because, well, why would we walk?
If we let it, and if our prayers seek more for a change of heart than a change of circumstances, every season of our lives can introduce us to a Heaven that is perfectly aware, entirely capable, and so kind.
We are children of Heavenly Parents with a divine nature and eternal destiny. Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we stand delivered, now.
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