When...

April 19

Trials are inevitable. Danger lurks in the dark corners of our path as well as in the recesses of our mind. They say it’s the things we worry about that never happen but sometimes just the act of worrying itself is sufficient to rob us of our joy and power in believing.

Though we serve a God who is infinitely knowing, who can see the end from the beginning and assures us we may walk confidently through life; though we serve a Christ who is omnipotent to the point of overcoming man’s last great enemy, death, and washing away our sin in the process of doing so; though we know He’s always with us, yet we magnify our concerns and diminish our faith when we should lay our cares at His feet (I Peter 5:7) and abandon ourselves to Him fully.

Isaiah 43: 2, 3 gives a very up-lifting word to the person of faith at the point of his severe testing. It says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when you go through the swollen rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not kindle upon you—for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your SAVIOR.”

Do you see the key word in this passage that affirms God’s role as our Savior? It is the word ‘when.’ The Lord doesn’t promise to be with His child ‘if’ he encounters danger. He doesn’t assure him of His presence in the event of a trial that is beyond his control. No. His affirmation is that WHEN the ordeals of life come, when the enemy assails with a vengeance, HE, Jesus, God, will be with the believer to guard him from the onslaught that has come against him.