When You Pass Through the Waters, He Is With You

**A message to my faithful blog readers out there: I apologize that it took me so long to write. Two reasons exist for my tardiness in posting: 1. My surgery rotation has nutso hours and I'm usually either at work or sleeping and 2. My computer flipped out about two weeks ago and wouldn't connect to the internet at my house and only yesterday did I finally get around to asking a friend of mine to please come try and fix it. Anywho, I'll try to be more prompt in my blogging from now on. I pray that my blogs would encourage you in your walk and that you'd be reminded of how wide and deep the Father's love for you is!

I was flipping through my journal this morning and came across an entry with some good stuff in it. The journal entry is from October, right smack in the middle of the heartache that I blogged about a few days ago. I remember reading a devotion about suffering and trials that God graciously put in front of me right when I needed it; the devotion talked about Martin Luther's 3 rules for understanding scripture -

1. Praying

2. Meditating

3. Suffering

One of God's gifts to us in the midst of suffering is that we are granted to see and experience depths of His word that a life of ease would never allow us to experience. According to Luther, trials are extremely valuable since they teach us to know and to understand and to experience how right and true and sweet and lovely and mighty and comforting God's word is. I remember reading a Piper devotional about pain in which he wrote that there are seasons of life when the pain is so great that we cannot even think or read Scripture. I've been there before, and I'm sure most of you all have too. Thankfully, those seasons are not indefinite and the pain only lasts for a little while; Psalm 30:5 says that "weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning." I think that the rejoicing that that verse talks about is the joy and peace that is found only after struggling through a trial and then arriving at the place where our hearts can reflect back on that trial and come to realize that God allowed us to go through the fire so that we'd be made more into the image of His Son. Zechariah 13:9 says, "I will put them into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name and I will answer them; I will say 'They are My people,' and they will say 'The Lord is our God." 

I find much encouragement in the first chapter of James whenever I find myself in the midst of a trial - 

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,

whenever you face trials of many kinds, 

because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverence. 

Let perseverance finish its work so that you might mature and complete, 

not lacking anything....blessed is the one who perseveres under trial 

because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life

that the Lord has promised to those who love Him."

James 1:2-4, 12

The lesson in Sunday school a few months ago was based upon the common question, "why does God allow suffering and trials in the life of the believer?" It was suggested that because we are sinful, we wouldn't know how sweet the peaks are if we didn't have to go through the valleys. It was also said that the peaks prepare us for the valleys, since every believer knows that life this side of Heaven will never be perfect. I think that those answers are both good and right. But the answer that I found to be truest and most pertient to my life was found in Psalm 119:71:

"It is good for me that I was afflicted, 

that I may learn Your statues."

My heart is oftentimes lazy and daily I catch myself just going through life, rarely stopping to ask the Lord what He would have me do in every situation I find myself in. I usually just plow right on through the day and lift up my prayers and concerns to the Lord at night when I'm half drunk with sleep and my eyes are closed before I even finish my prayers. But ever since finding myself in the midst of a heartache last fall that seemed too large to conquer, I've come to realize that God wants to be a part of every situation, every conversation, every thought that I have every day. He walks beside me every step of the way, never for one moment forgetting about me. This holds true even in the struggles, even when the pain is so great that you can't even find it in yourself to pray.

The next time you find yourself in the middle of a struggle, remember Isaiah 43:1-3:

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; 

I have called you by name, you are Mine. 

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; 

and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; 

the flames will not set you ablaze. 

For I am the Lord your God, 

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior."

"Isaiah 43" by Hillsong