“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears and rescues them from all their troubles.” Psalm 34:17
The vision I immediately see is someone drowning in a body of water and the lifeguard throwing out the big, red ring for them to grab onto to save them. God is our lifeguard, He’s waiting for you to cry out to Him so He can throw you a rope. He will save you from drowning, He will reel You back into dry land and set you on solid ground. He’ll put you on the Rock that cannot be moved. But you have to be righteous and you have to cry out.
What does it mean to be righteous? Righteous, in its simplest definition means “just.” Webster’s 1828 dictionary says “Just; accordant to the divine law. Applied to persons, it denotes one who is holy in heart, and observant of the divine commands in practice; as a righteous man.” You become righteous through your relationship with Jesus. Bottom line, you have been made clean through your relationship with Jesus. He makes you just. When He died on the cross He took on your sins and you became “holy in heart” when you accepted Him into your life.
It does not mean you are perfect. It does not mean you are better than anyone else. It just means you have a right relationship with God because of your right relationship with Jesus. Period. The first rope God through out to us was Jesus. Right then and there He saved us from our troubles, whether we realized it or not. The minute you grabbed onto that lifeline, you were made new in Christ. Your old self died and you were given a new life.
There is a situation in my husband’s and I’s life right now that seems literally impossible. Prior to writing this devotional, I started a new journal. It’s dedicated completely to this issue. I know we’re at the beginning of a very long battle. As my husband puts it, we’re starting to navigate through an asteroid field. We’re going to get hit with asteroids we don’t see coming, but we’re praying we can arrive safely to the other side. We were hit with an asteroid already. We will never make it to the other side of this project if God does not steer the ship. I’m crying out to Him before we even get started. I’m counting on His rope to guide us on our journey.
He’ll do the same for you. Cry out to Him, grab onto the rope and enjoy the ride. (And I’d write it down too. When you land on the Rock, you don’t want to forget the journey.)
