I am certainly a believer in divine deliverance from evil. For the most part, however, the evil that confronts me has much to do with my own bad choices. When the light of my heart is brightened* I realize that deliverance requires some effort on my part.

I can turn from it.

I can flee from it.

I must repent of it.

In another time the Israelites were delivered by God from Egypt. The story is full of magic and miracles as the deliverance of Israel took shape. I wonder how the story would have gone if the Israelis never packed for the trip. A story so full of miraculous intervention had an instructive first step: belief that deliverance was possible.

I get to talk to people who wish to be delivered from the mess their lives have become but they are fearful or unwilling to take that first baby step of faith that says: I believe that God is Who He says He is….The Deliverer.

*Who brightens the light in the hearts of people? Who sheds light on our need? Who gives the first spark to faith’s fire? My life is the story of a man who is willing but never able to comprehend the relentless grace of the Deliverer.