Isaiah 43:1b-2

"Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.  When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee…"

I don't know how much experience you have with fire.  Most everyone has enjoyed a good bonfire at some point in their life.  Fire can be beautiful.  But it can also be very scary.

This past winter, we were enjoying a roaring fire in our wood-burning fireplace.  It was toasty, the wood was crackling and popping, and I was thankful.  And then a giant gust of wind came down the chimney, and it forced the fire out of the fireplace into the room.  In a matter of seconds, the beautiful fire had turned into a destructive, consuming, threatening mess.  The flames had taken hold to the mantle and were quickly climbing the wall.  I grabbed my child and headed outside while my husband extinguished the fire with quick thinking and several buckets of water.  Our house was only on fire for two or three minutes, but in that time the entire mantle and part of the wall had been burned.  Our home had been filled with ash, soot, and smoke.  It smelled for days.  My husband had to rebuild the mantle.  We spent the better part of a week ridding our home of the damage done by the fire in a very short amount of time.

I don't know about you, but I don't like to endure anything.  Sometimes I get downright irritated when I have to go through something hard.  And I've had my fair share of hard situations.  Sometimes I think…, "but I'm following Jesus… this isn't fair!"  I fell into that trap this past week.  I was reading in Isaiah and drawing comfort from the verses above that promise that God is with me.  And then I was struck by something I'd never noticed before.  Wait, was that right?!  I read the verses again.  And again.  Yep, it was right there.

"…When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned…"

Now that’s weird.  It doesn't say we WON'T walk through fire.  Nor does it say IF you walk through fire.  It says WHEN you walk through fire.  I'm not real fond of that part.  But then it goes on.  It doesn't stop there, my friend.  It says that we won't be burned.

Fire is intense.  Its destructive.  It can be very painful.  But we will not be burned.  We may have to walk through it.  We may have to fight it.  We may have to endure.  But we will not be burned.  Our eyes may sting from the smoke.  It make take time to recover.  But we will not be burned.

That’s what I know.  And so…