Article: CALL UPON GOD IN THE DAY OF YOUR TROUBLE! | JACOB VARGHESE

Psalm 50:15 “call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” What an incredible promise! The Creator of the Universe, the God of infinite power and might, invites us to call upon him in our troubles. God doesn’t want us to try to make it on our own. God doesn’t want us to try to bear our burdens on our own. We are simply too weak, too frail, too incapable. He doesn’t want us to keep calm and carry on with our troubles. No, He wants us to call upon Him in the day of our trouble. Our Heavenly father cares about our lives. He says, “I care about you. Call upon me in the day of trouble. Bring your worries and cares to me.” Psalm 9:9 “The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.” When we call on the Lord in the day of trouble, our weakness is overshadowed by God’s glorious strength. God is willing to help us. God truly desires to help us. He wouldn’t tell us to call upon him in the day of trouble if he wasn’t willing to help us. The Lord is inclined to help us. He is just waiting to do good to us. We simply need to call upon him. All we need to do is open our lips and call up on his name. Our God is so good. He is but a whisper away anytime. He is constantly listening to our prayers. Rather than needlessly suffering anxiety and worry, we can carry everything to God in prayer. We call upon God in the day of trouble and he answers our prayers.

God gives us sure and a certain promise. “I WILL deliver you.” God doesn’t say, “I might deliver you,” but “I WILL deliver you.” God always keeps his promises. Numbers 23:19 says “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” God won’t forget to deliver us. He won’t change his mind or lie. He will hear us, come to our help, surely and certainly deliver us. It might not be on our timetable, but he will not fail to keep his word. God delivers for his glory. He will receive praise and honor and glory when he rescues us. When God answers our cries for help, we will pour out thanks. We will tell others how God helped us. We will praise him. Begin to glorify God now in the midst of your trouble. Thank him that he hears our prayers. That he is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Praise him that he is causing all things to work together for our good and is making us more like Christ. The Israelites saw the delivering power of God when He brought them out of slavery in Egypt and into the land promised to Abraham. The deliverance from Egypt points to the greater deliverance from sin, death, and hell. Jesus died on the cross and rose again on the third day to fulfill the ultimate rescue mission. All who call upon Christ for deliverance will not be turned away. As promised in Acts 2:21, and Romans 10:13, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” The Lord does just what He promises, and in so doing His name is glorified.
When your heart is anxious, your circumstances troubling, and the way forward seems uncertain, the passage of the Psalms is a wonderful source for encouragement and instruction. It is presumed that a day of trouble will come. God is instructing us how to respond when our day of trouble comes. Days of trouble are uncomfortable and painful. Pain is what would lead us to a cry of desperation for deliverance. All of us have confronted fear – fear of the sickness, death, being alone, losing loved ones, an uncertain future, the loss of routine, and so on. The psalmist begins verse 15 by admonishing the people of God to “call” upon the Lord. This “call” necessitates a posture of humility. It showcases our inabilities and inadequateness. It acknowledges that God is always in the position to save. He is always and infinitely resourceful. The thought of God, sitting on the throne of all creation, inclining His ear to my prayer is so humbling and inspiring. In our verse, God listened to the prayer because His response was directed to the circumstances connected to their day of trouble. God not only heard; He understood the need. During the days of trouble, let us believe God to be gracious, truthful, generous, attentive, active, powerful, personal, engaged, creative, compassionate, and in general be everything the Word of God says He is, while doing everything the Word of God says He can do. Calling God in trouble is a truthful recognition of God. The man, who calls upon God in the day of trouble, evidently possesses a real and sincere belief in God’s existence, in his personality, in his power and in his continual care in the affairs of men. It is filled with a manifest hope in God. It hopes in God for his goodness, for his mercy, for his grace. It brings glory to god through the answer “I will deliver you.” It is a positive answer. It is not, “I may, perhaps, deliver you”; but, “I will.” It is a personal answer. “I will deliver you.” It is not said, “My angels shall do it,” but “I will deliver you.” The Lord God himself undertakes to rescue his people.

Sometimes we face severe tribulations. It seems that we just cannot continue on any longer. At times like this let us remember God’s exhortation: “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor me” Let us take all our worries and cares to God. He has given His only Son for our sins. Will He not hear the plea of His children and take note of their distress? In real life, every time we face unfortunate events such as setbacks and illnesses, we may think that God has forsaken us and no longer protects us, and thereby sink into negativity and lose our faith in God. Yet as long as we pray to God in these situations and understand His will, our mistaken viewpoints will be turned around. Perhaps the greatest reason God has for taking us through the trials of life is to bring us to the firm conclusion that we need God. He desires to work powerfully through our lives; therefore we must learn to depend on Him. He alone must become our source of strength, provision, protection, and direction.
God’s goal through our trials is to strengthen our dependence on Him. We must trust Him to work in the ways and in the time frame of God that will produce the most good in our lives and the most glory for His name. Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” No matter what troubles or good times we face, we should never lose sight of God. Trust Him in and for both the good and the bad. Continually acknowledge and seek Him. He will never leave you nor forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5). God reserves the right to deliver His children from their troubles in His own way and His own time. Sometimes He does perform a dramatic rescue. Sometimes He delivers us by giving us the grace to endure the trouble. And sometimes He delivers us when He brings us to heaven. Whatever His deliverance looks like, it is the result of His faithfulness to keep His promise to deliver His children from trouble when they call to Him for help. Let us rejoice in the greatest deliverance He has given His children—the deliverance from their greatest problem—the problem of sin and separation from Him. Regardless of what trouble Christians encounter on earth, our souls are secure in eternity. This truly is the greatest deliverance. As we face trouble in this life, let us take hold of God’s sure promise to deliver His children from trouble and walk with faith and trust in His promise and the means by which He keeps it.

JACOB VARGHESE

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