DEVOTION: "The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead."(Proverbs 11:8)

"Delivered out of Trouble". From time to time we all face some kind of troubled circumstances or situations. It may be in your finances, you may get sick, it may involve your job or just everywhere you turn it seems like life is falling apart around you. Some of you that are reading this right this very instance are in some kind of trouble. The word "trouble" in this passage means anguish, adversity, distress, affliction and tribulation. Do any of these words remind you of where you are and what you are facing right now? The verse for today promises us that God will deliver the righteous out of trouble. The Apostle Paul refers to some trouble in his life that he had found himself in due to preaching the Gospel in some not so friendly places. "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;"(11 Corinthians 4:8-9). Even though Paul was facing some serious trouble, He kept his focus on God's ability to get him through. When I was 21 years old I was working in a welding shop in Houma, LA that repaired various pieces of equipment for oil rigs. It was the year I surrendered to preach the Gospel and my son Matthew was born. As a struggling new family we had, like many others, moved to the oil field to find work. I was a young welder and one night we got an emergency call from one of the rigs that we serviced; they needed us ASAP!! Something had gone wrong on the rig that could be a potentially dangerous situation on the rig. We loaded our tools and headed to Sabine Pass, TX at a high rate of speed to catch a helicopter to the rig. We arrived and a storm had come up unexpectedly but we had to get to the rig because it was in danger, possibly endangering the lives of the men on the rig. Our company finally found a boat that would try to get us to the rig. We had a job to do, so we took a deep breath and loaded our tools on the boat. It was a four hour ride in unbelievable circumstances, waves that looked like mountains coming at you and strong gusts of howling wind. Those of you that worked on oil rigs in those days know the danger of getting off a boat onto a rig in this kind of storm. But we had made our minds up to accomplish the mission. The men on the rig were in danger and they needed our unique skills to fix the problem. The Pilot of the boat that got us to the rig, the crane operator that snatched us off the boat deck in a storm safely and us welders all working together got the job done. The Kingdom of God is not a one man show but a group effort. Find your place in the church, keep moving, and you'll walk out of the trouble you are facing. Just keep moving in Faith!!

Pastor Scott L. Boatner
Please join the Scott Boatner Ministries International ministry team and share this word with your friends. God Bless