Is lifting a single phrase from a Bible verse and enjoying it okay? Have you ever found that there are times when the chapter you are reading is heavy and not quickly digestible, yet you need spiritual nourishment and encouragement before you carry on with your day?

Here is one such expression to be reminded of and appreciated once again today:

“The Lord knows how…” 2 Peter 2:9

But do you have any business enjoying such a phrase? Is it fair to lift it from its context and apply it to your current situation? After all, those four words weren’t written to tell you the Lord knows how to solve the problems you are facing just now or the heavy burden you are carrying. So, how could those four words help you today?

Peter was not writing about our trials or the storms in our lives. The Apostle Peter wrote his second Epistle to warn against false teachers. He wanted Christians to know how sect leaders and heretics worm their way into people’s hearts and sow seeds of destructive error to produce nothing but a harvest of wickedness.

Peter warns that the consequences of error perpetrated by false teachers are enormous. The judgment of God will definitely be executed upon the perpetrators and will catch up with those who become followers of the falsehoods.

Peter proves that God will have the last word. Judgment fell on the wicked in Noah’s day. The wrath of God broke loose on sinners in Sodom. But then Peter points out that God protected Noah’s family from the deluge. And He had a way of escape for Lot.

Here is how it reads:

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then

the Lord knows how

to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment… 2 Peter 2:4-9 ESV

The Lord always ensures that the righteous never perish with the unrighteous. The wicked will not have the upper hand. The Lord always does. His judgments are always fair and righteous. The ark was Noah’s way of deliverance. As for Christians today — we are safe in Christ. Romans 8:1 assures us there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.

God knows how to provide a way of escape from judgment for those who are godly and how to ensure the ungodly don’t escape from the judgment that awaits them. The Lord knows how to do both.

So that’s the context of those four words. But can those four words be applied to your situation just now? Yes — because the Lord does know how to do other things as well. In fact, He has all the answers. He’s the only One who does. Some people talk like they know it all and have all the answers, but they don’t. Only the Lord does, but He is not required to explain His sovereign purposes to us.

We may have many questions and struggle with the “whys” along life’s journey. The Lord may not provide the answers now or in eternity. The ultimate test of our faith is to trust Him, lean on Him wholly, and allow Him to carry us on His shoulders —plural. (Luke 15:5) He knows how to weave the threads and their various colours into the fabric of our lives to bring Him the most glory and us the most good according to His eternal purposes for us. He knows how.

Dear Child of God, the One who knows how to have the final say on the ultimate matters of time and eternity also knows how in this moment of your life. He is the only One who truly has the ‘know-how’ at this time. God is God and what seems like an utter impossibility to you right now — He knows how to bring you through and enable you to appreciate His goodness in a new dimension.

Michael J. Fox Fears His Religion Isn’t Working

The Cross speaks volumes about His goodness, His grace and His love. God is a good God and completely trustworthy. He is never idle nor does He sleep.

My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber. Indeed, the Protector of Israel does not slumber or sleep. Psalms 121:2-4 CSB

You will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you. Trust in the LORD forever because in the LORD, the LORD himself, is an everlasting rock!

Isaiah 26:3-4 CSB

Allow this song, HE WILL CARRY YOU by Scott Wesley Brown, to provide solace to you today, even if reasons and answers remain obscure. If you aren’t able to click on the link, here are the lyrics:

There is no problem too big

God cannot solve it.
There is no mountain too tall
He cannot move it.
There is no storm too dark
God cannot calm it.
There is no sorrow too deep
He cannot soothe it.

If He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulders,
I know my brother that He will carry you.
If He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulders,
I know my sister that He will carry you.

In closing, He invites you to come to Him if you are weary and weighed down with burdens, and He will give you rest. Matthew 11:28