Isaiah 43: 1b-3a
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. ESV
“Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you.
I’ve called your name. You’re mine.
When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you.
When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down.
When you’re between a rock and a hard place,
it won’t be a dead end—
Because I am God, your personal God,
The Holy of Israel, your Savior. The Message
See, you have nothing to fear. I, who made you, will take you back.
I have chosen you, named you as My own.
2 When you face stormy seas I will be there with you with endurance and calm;
you will not be engulfed in raging rivers.
If it seems like you’re walking through fire with flames licking at your limbs,
keep going; you won’t be burned.
3 Because I, the Eternal One, am your God.
I am the Holy One of Israel, and I will save you. The Voice
About five years ago, these verses were given to me as I started on what has been a very long and very hard road. There have been moments where I thought the worst was behind me, only to turn a corner and find myself back in a raging storm. I have had many days where the bottom has just plain fallen out. In my past, when hard days and painful experiences have shown up out of nowhere, I have felt indignation over why something like this would happen to me. But as the years have gone on, and the Lord has been so specific in His speaking to me, I have learned what a quiet surrender to His plans looks like.
When I read these verses on the front side of really hard trials, my eyes and ears gravitate to the good parts: “I will be with you”, “you will not be burned”, “you are Mine”, “I will save you.” Those verses bring comfort and strengthen me as the Lord reminds me of His faithfulness.
But as I have walked through very deep and dark valleys recently, I find the promises of trials are what catch my eye and resonate with me. “When you pass through waters”, “when you walk through fire“, “when you’re in over your head.” These verses don’t say “when somebody else that you know who is in a battle,” although obviously these verses apply to every Christian brother and sister, but explicitly, You.
These verses remind me of one of my favorite New Testament verses, John 16:33 which says, ” I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” NIV
I have been promised God’s rescue and protection within the scary, dangerous, painful places. I found I was holding on to the promise of God’s nearness while letting the promises of fire and flood and hard journeys stay neatly tucked away somewhere else. I would quickly read past that part and pretend like raging rivers and stormy seas aren’t really that bad, or hard or long. But if I stop long enough to imagine myself waking up in the middle of the night to a house engulfed in flames and trying to escape as the flames lick my limbs, reality sets in. I can imagine the fear that surrounds you and tells you that you aren’t going to make it out of this alive. You don’t know what to do, where to turn, what steps are going to lead to safety and which ones lead to escape. You can’t breathe and smoke is pilling up around you, you feel trapped.
I have found great comfort in these verses lately, because when fear is trying to tell me that I am not going to make it out of this alive, or I am surrounded by circumstances that are closing in on me and I don’t know where to turn or what step to take next, I see that God is not absent during any of those emotions. He knew this would happen and is not afraid that He can’t get me out of it alive. He is never overwhelmed or lost.
“When” is the opposite of “if.” I can’t think of one single verse that says “if you have to do something hard.” There is no if, it’s always when. Now, it will never be the same as someone else’s trial and the world will try to tell you that your’s isn’t as intense as the next guy’s. But it doesn’t matter the specific details, all that matters is that the bible says when and you. You will have times where you feel like you are at a dead end. You will have times when you are surrounded by fear like flames. These are not trivial trials. They will not be things that you can make it through on your own. They will be hard and overwhelming and scary.
I have not learned to tell myself that my emotions are wrong or invalid during these very difficult storms, but I have learned to not be surprised by them and to not give into the devil when he lies and tells me that “I don’t deserve this.” “This shouldn’t be happening to you”, “I thought you had a good Father who loves you, do you really think He loves you now?” Do these sound familiar? I know I’m not the only one who has ever heard him whisper this. The Lord doesn’t promise that His love keeps all storms out of our life, it promises that those storms don’t win, they can’t defeat or destroy us.
These aren’t the only verses that talk about trials and tribulations and hard times that we will suffer on this side of heaven. The Bible is clear that life is hard. Sin, death and pain are still free to work their evil in our lives. Injustices and cruelty still run rampant. Everyone we know and interact with is struggling with their own sin and living through wounds we may know nothing about. So much so that interacting with people will sometimes hurt us. Ultimately, the human experience is filled with pain, unmet expectations, and deep dark valleys.
My family started watching the series The Chosen last year during quarantine. It is a historical fiction series based on the lives of the people Jesus chose to follow Him. We watched the entire first season and then waited what felt like forever for season 2 to come out. In episode 6 of season 2, Mary Magdalene experienced a very traumatic event that brought back “old demons” and she ran away from the safety of following Jesus. She fell back into some of her old habits and felt unworthy to ever come back to Jesus or the group. Jesus sends Simon Peter and Matthew into Jericho to try and find her to bring her back. They eventually do and when she comes to Jesus she is just riddled with shame and guilt. They have a longer conversation but then Jesus says, “Did you really think that you’d never struggle or sin again? I know how painful that moment was for you.” She replies with, “I shouldn’t(still struggle).” Jesus says, “Someday, but not here.”
It struck me when Jesus looks at Mary and reassures her that this world is not perfect and does not hold the same promises that await us in Heaven. As trials and testing and pruning and painful things and struggles and failures have happened in my life, I have gone to Jesus with my broken heart and wondered how is there still so much pain and devastation in my life? I’ve very quietly heard Him whisper as He scoops my heart into His hands, “Someday it will be gone, but not here, not now. I will never leave you and you don’t have to fight this battle, but you do have to walk through this pain with me. I am doing things through this that will bring blessing to you, but you must trust Me on this journey now.”
I pray that as followers of Jesus, we can learn to take deep valleys and hard struggles in stride, always trusting that we will not be defeated. I pray that we can resist the temptation to take matters into our own hands and fight for our honor or do whatever we can to end any small suffering immediately. I pray that we will trust Jesus enough to walk through the fire, knowing it will not burn us, and that in the midst of pain, we can have the confidence that comes with knowing who our Daddy is.
It usually takes walking through something really hard to know if you’ve grown to trust Jesus this much. Those days are coming and when they do, if you will turn your eyes upon Jesus, and look full in His wonderful face, then the hard things and pain of this earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace. I added a few words to one my favorite choruses.
This is the truth of what I have been processing through during this “sabbatical” I took from blogging. I appreciate you allowing me this short break as my life was turned upside down and I needed to spend so much of my time simply sitting at the feet of my Jesus. He has been so good. I look forward to sharing more of the things He has shown me over these past few months. Thank you for going on this journey with me!
Your Fellow Traveler
lacey
Find True Joy 