Isa 43:2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Everyday I try to read a little book that has daily Bible inspirations. Sometimes I'll read it early, sometimes I won't read it till late at night. If I forget to read it one day I'll read two the next, or try to. Yesterday I didn't get to it until later at night and I had to smile. Sometimes God arranges things so we see His hand at work clearly even if we're not exactly sure what lesson we are being taught. More often than not it'll be a lesson that we'll need for the future. I'm sure God is showing me something, not sure exactly where it will apply but yesterday my study was on Matthew 7:24-27 where we are taught by Jesus about being wise and building our houses upon the Rock and not upon the sand where the wind and waters and such can knock us down. Later that day I did something very spontaneously, I took our car to the car wash for the first time (on my own, that I can remember) the automatic car wash. Why? Well it was looking awfully dirty and my hubby who usually keeps up with its washing is recovering from surgery and infections so he isn't out and about like he usually is and well I just thought I'd get it cleaned up. Now there isn't anything remarkable about taking a car through a car wash and it was over and done with, I didn't think about it again until later that night when I picked up the daily bible booklet and had to laugh as I read a little story about going through a car wash! It was amazing that here I took our car through the car wash out of the blue and that very night I'd read about 'going through the waters'. The analogy was about going through life's rough waters and how God will be with us when that happens.
So here we have it- 3 things. 1st my study on building our houses on the Rock so the rains of life don't beat us down, 2nd the car washing, and 3rd the analogy to match that car washing. God is trying to show me something so I'm going to study a bit more on this and hope and pray I learn the lesson I'm going to need as His wisdom has reveals.
Isa 43:2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Waters, rivers, fire and flame all natural elements. Water and fire to opposing elements and yet both in their own right are deadly as well as life sustaining. Water is necessary for so much and fire is as well. Life and death the seemingly neverending cycle that is our lot. Only it's not life and death, it's life, death, and life again. With God our lives don't have to end in death eternal unless we choose that path. We can have life eternal it is a gift offered to us all through Jesus Christ and His righteousness, His grace, His mercy, His love.
All through life we will have those two opposing yet necessary forces in our lives. We will pass through waters that will assail us trying to drown us and steal our lives and we will pass through fires that will try to burn us and keep us from a life in Christ. We know we will have trials and tribulations, we know that we will have many obstacles to face and that's not something we can ever get out of, we can't expect to have a life trouble free because that doesn't exist. What we can count on is God being with us through it all. We have to burn into our minds this verse-
Isa 43:2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
We might feel like we're drowning in a sea of despair, we might be sure we are being burned alive and all hope is being stripped from us as life's heartaches assail us unendingly. When the pain is upon us, either mentally or physically, or even emotionally we instinctively seem to want to blame God for allowing the pain, we question Him, we question life and it's so easy to believe God has abandoned us by allowing the horrific trials of life to beat at us. He never leaves us- we leave Him. We have to trust Him beyond everything else. We have to have faith in Him that He will see us through the deepest of waters and the mose wicked of storms, that He will protect our eternal life as we are seemingly being burned alive with the fiery trials of life. We can't believe God is leaving us, or has left us when life hurts we have to trust that He that knows the end from the beginning knows what is what and that His will is better than our own will even if we can't even see the first hint of understanding dawning as to why the trials and tribulations come to us. The more they come the closer to God we need to be not further away.
By the grace and mercy of God may we hold fast to Him through all storms that come our way even when they come one after another so violent that our very hearts feel as if they are being torn from our chests. In Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, by His love and through the Holy Spirit's guidance.
Amen.
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