Isaiah 43:2

 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 ~ Isaiah 43:2


I am very blessed as I live a life that, for now, is relatively free of stresses and burdens that overwhelm a soul. I am grateful and thankful for that. It is not that my life has always been so, for there have been many rivers I have had to ford, and many fires that needed putting out in my life. But, like the promises from the word of Isaiah here, none of them have taken me so down to drown me completely and no fire which consumed me entirely. God has always had my hand in his, even when I did not know it. It is when we look back over the trials of our life and know that we survived them with his help. This is where we can see how our trust in the Lord preserves us. He is faithful when we lack faith, he is trustworthy when we lack trust. If we have asked him into our heart, even our weakness becomes his strength in those times of turmoil. That is the joy of the Lord we have in our salvation. The world does not have this joy or this knowledge for it does not know the hand of the Lord. It sees the rivers depth and the fiery flame and lives in fear, in distrust, in anxiety, and too often their soul perishes into a living death. I know, for I was there before the Lord came into my heart and life as my Saviour. My soul cries out now for those who do not know my Saviour and Lord; for those who have not entrusted their lives into his caring hands which hold our head up as we cross our rivers in life. Only with Jesus at our side can the challenges we all face, though they differ between us, be overcome by his power and love, and his strength to redeem the broken and lost into salvation.

Pastor Julia

image by pixabay

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments

Popular posts from this blog

Proverbs 18:2

Image
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in sharing their own opinions ~ Proverbs 18:2 If we are going to understand something, we must fully digest it so that when we speak, we speak with wisdom. When we have only half truths in our mind, our words become empty and senseless. We then puff out air rather than understanding when we speak. A wise person will want to improve their mind through learning in various ways from the world around them. A person who delights in spiritual understanding will find peace and enjoyment in reading the Word of God on a daily basis, and in participating with God’s people in a learning and praising environment – the church! We come together in corporate worship with the understanding that not one of us knows all things, but we bend our mind and heart to learn what God has to show and say to us. A foolish person makes a show of what they “know” to please their friends or to save face in front of them. More often a wise person will hold t
Read more

Romans 8:26

Image
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans ~ Romans 8:26 Many days, many times, I have the words for prayer. It comes forth and flows fairly naturally as I converse with my Lord God. I hope in the God I worship to hear me, and to receive my words, as I pray in the name of Jesus and believe in Him, my intercessor. He is my Living Saviour, my High Priest, standing at the right hand of God the Father. But there are times when my pain has been so deep that my words will not come. There are times when my agony is so piercing that what words I may speak would not be enough. And so, in my deep, black moments, I come before my God and let my darkest emotions erupt in sounds that only He can understand. The Holy Spirit within me cries out in my stead, and He becomes my second intercessor. It is not that He is not there with me in all my prayers, but there are times wh
Read more

Isaiah 43:19

Image
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert ~ Isaiah 43:19 When we meet a challenge, we are often found discouraged, lost, even hopeless. Nothing is working, everything seems to be against us. We do not know how to move forward, so we remain curled up in a ball. Then, a glimmer of light shines through! Hope is regained and movement is stirred within. Don’t we become excited when we begin to feel it? God moves like that. We cannot see our way around it, but He can and does. And He makes a way for us out of the calamity of our fears. It is the feeling of springtime after a long winter, or the smell of fresh cut grass. Life stirs within and we move and we see what God saw all the time – the answer to our dilemma. Our desert place becomes an oasis, and we can do what we are called to do. Something totally unexpected happens, something unheard of, but it begins in our life, and we feel the
Read more