God saves...me.

My littlest one loves to read books. Or, more accurately, he loves for me to read books to him. The tricky thing is he’s a very fast reader. Have you ever tried reading a book to someone who turns pages so fast they look like hummingbird wings? It makes for interesting stories. Sometimes, I only get to read one word from each page, and the resulting story might be something like: “See the horse pig with two mice standing in clover. The end.”  (adapted from Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton)

But sometimes he picks a book I know well enough to summarize. I can spout off a whole sentence before the page turns. And the plot makes a lot more sense, even if we do miss the details.

Not long ago, we had gone through our usual twenty-three books when my little guy pulled out a story Bible. The stories were way too long for his taste, so we did a one-sentence-per-story fly-by of Scripture. And I noticed a pattern.

See if you can pick it up:

God created the world. Adam and Eve sinned. God saved Noah. God saved Abraham. God saved Joseph. God saved Joseph’s family. God saved Moses. God saved the Israelites. God saved the Israelites again. God saved the Israelites once more. God saved Rahab. God saved the Israelites. God saved the Israelites. God saved the Israelites. God saved the Israelites (this could last a while if we do the whole book of Judges, so I’ll stop here.). God saved Ruth. God saved David. God saved the Israelites. God saved David a few more times. God saved Elijah. God saved lots of other kings, and He usually saved the Israelites in the process. God saved Job. God saved Isaiah. God saved Jeremiah. God saved Daniel and his three friends. God saved the three friends. God saved Daniel again. God continued to save the Israelites. God saved Jonah (in spite of his extraordinary efforts to avoid being saved). God sent Jesus. God saves everybody who trusts in Jesus.

Did you catch the pattern? I’ll admit, I added a few stories that weren’t in our board book. Just to help you out. And maybe add some emphasis.

God delights to save people. It’s the job description He writes for Himself: save people.

First and foremost, He saves us from ourselves, from our own sin. He knows we’ll never be able to straighten out our lives and be righteous before Him. So He does it for us. He sent Jesus to live perfectly for our lack of perfection and to die sacrificially for our sins.

And then He keeps saving us. Do you need saving from something?

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18, ESV).

It’s what He does. It’s who He is.

Don’t get me wrong; God doesn’t take all our troubles away. We only have to look one verse further to see we’ll still have problems.

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous…

“But the Lord delivers him out of them all.” (Psalm 34:19, ESV, ellipses and emphasis added)

Nothing you face today, tomorrow or for the rest of your life is too big for God. Or too small. He is a God who saves.

From what has God saved you? Leave a comment below.

Know someone who would be encouraged by this today? Please share!