March 8

O LORD, be gracious to us! We wait for You. Be our strength every morning and our salvation in time of trouble. — Isa 33:2 BSB

The people of Israel often pass through seasons of deep sorrow and trouble. Many of God’s people, if not most, face both temporal and spiritual trials. But when they come to know the Lord as Savior, they are convinced that He is the only one who can support them in trouble and deliver them out of it. This conviction is deeply rooted in their hearts: He is a Savior in times of trouble. It is God’s purpose to drive us out of all false refuges so that we may believe in Jesus for the salvation of our souls, that we may prove He is able to save to the uttermost all who come to God through Him, and that we may know salvation as a divine reality.

Though He is always a Savior, we do not experience Him as such during times of worldly ease, carnal prosperity, or spiritual carelessness. But in times of deep trouble, when no one else can help or heal us but the Lord, and we come to Him in those moments, we find how He saves in trouble and delivers us from it. This is what makes the Savior so precious to believing hearts.

The expression “time of trouble” includes every trouble we might face, whether temporal or spiritual. It also indicates that there is no season of trouble in which the Lord is not willing and able to save us. How this aligns with His gracious promise: “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”