In today's first reading from Acts 5, the Apostles were dragged before the Sanhedrin and chastised for teaching in the name of Jesus. Peter and the Apostles replied, "We must obey God rather than men." The Gospel reading continues in John 3.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is from Psalm 34. The last line says this: "Many are the troubles of the just man, but out them all the LORD delivers him."
This can be difficult for some to understand. Take the Apostles. All but one were martyred, brutally killed. How did the Lord "deliver" them? And what about us? Life is full of troubles, sometimes endless. How can one say that the Lord delivered them from an endless cycle of woes? When we put our trust in God and understand that he has a purpose for everything, we can be at peace. Then we can feel that deliverance from all our troubles.
Father, thank you for delivering us from all our troubles. May our faith and trust in you increase daily. Amen.
I was in an abusive relationship back in ‘91. One night in July of that year, I fell asleep on the couch watching tv, when suddenly I heard the front door kicked in…it was my then boyfriend. He was raging mad and started to attack me and threaten me. I felt trapped and couldn’t leave as my little girls were asleep in their room.
He walked away into our bedroom, and I was relieved. Almost immediately he returned with a shotgun (I hadn’t even known he had one!!)
He pointed the rifle at my head, and I began to shake and cry silently (again I hadn’t wanted to scare my daughters). In that moment I completely surrendered myself to God and prayed He would watch over my girls. Suddenly my 3-year-old was standing next to me and asked me to hold her…I remember hugging her and leaning over her, so that when he shot me, she wouldn’t be hit or be splattered with my blood-I closed my eyes and I remember feeling a beautiful warmth cover me and a peace unlike I had ever felt before…for some reason I remember seeing light although the room was dimly lit.
I waited and when nothing happened, I slowly opened my eyes. My daughter was sleeping peacefully in my arms, my boyfriend was laying in the sofa across from me and he was in a deep sleep and the rifle was in the kitchen sink!!!
Right away I knew it had to have been God who saved me. I immediately got the girls and left for a women’s shelter.
Until today when you asked-Has God ever delivered you? It hit me, I realized that YES, He has delivered me-He delivered me from evil, from danger and I am eternally thankful.