Through the Waters

Notice the small, honest word at the start of this promise: when. "When you pass through the waters… when you walk through the fire." God does not promise His people a life without deep waters or scorching fire. He assumes them. The waters will come; the fire is coming; trouble is not an "if" but a "when." God's people are not exempt from the floods and flames of this world. What God promises is not exemption, but accompaniment: "I will be with you."

This is a far more honest and durable comfort than the false promise that faith will keep us from all trouble. It would be no comfort at all, when the waters actually rose, to have been told they never would. Instead God promises something we can rely on even in the depths: His presence in the trouble, and His preserving power so that the waters do not finally overflow us, nor the fire consume us. We pass through, not around, but through, and we do not go through alone. The same God who walked with three young men in a furnace walks with us in ours.

Whatever waters you are passing through today, you are not passing through them alone. He is with you, and they will not overflow you.