This Sunday, I am speaking at my aunt’s church in Aurora. This has caused me to be in a reflective mood about my health crisis coming up on its fourth anniversary in about two months. The timing of this opportunity and my reading in Isaiah seemed to merge conveniently.
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…. “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 ESV
Pastor/author Mark Batterson wrote a book entitled, “If.” If there was another one word that carries great significance in scripture it is the word, “when.”
When the prophet speaks to God’s people, he does not say, “if you pass through the waters…” Instead he said, “when!” Someone once observed, “you can count on it, you are either in a trial, coming out of a trial or getting ready for a trial.” That sounds like a rather pessimistic view of life, but one that speaks of reality more than not.
For years I lived life with the “if” approach. I had seen enough people go through the challenges, the surprises, the unexpected turns of life. It just seemed to me to be like winning the lottery. It could happen, but the chances are slim to none. Then as I tell people, “I ‘won’ the health crisis lottery.”
So, when “life happens” we can live with confidence that we are not a people forgotten, but those whose ways are known to the Lord and that He is attentive to our need and hears even the silent cry of our heart. For many weeks that is all that I could offer to the Lord, a “silent cry.” Unable to speak, a respirator ensuring that I would have the oxygen needed to sustain life, all I could do was to focus my mind and heart on the Lord and to look to Him for strength and courage needed to face each day.
Then I take note that the prophet says, “through the waters” “through the river” “through fire.” My mother-in-law liked the phrase in the Bible, “it came to pass.” The waters may come, the rivers may rise, the fire may burn, but they don’t come to last, they come to pass.
Then, in the context of Isaiah 43, we see the promise of a better future. A future filled with hope and restoration.
“Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” (Isaiah 43:5-7 ESV)
While God’s people were in captivity, far removed from their homeland and the Lord’s Temple, the Lord speaks words that give assurance of a “hope and a future.” He promises that their offspring will come from the “four corners” of the world and will be regathered once again in the promised land.
So, we not only see the inevitability of times of difficulty, not only do we see the Lord’s presence and strength, we not only see that they will not be our permanent state, they will not define us or our life, but we see that their is restoration and a future that emerges, like a seed from fertile soil coming forth to a new life.
Prayer for today…. Lord, thank you for bringing us through that which come into our life. You not only restore us, you transform us to be stronger and more faithful.