Assurances of God’s Help

“Fear not, 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 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. For I am the Lord your God, and the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” –Isaiah 43:1b-3a (ESV).

Do you feel sometimes that your challenges are out of proportion to your ability to meet and deal with them? It is at such times that we stop, consider deeply, and rely upon God’s promises, with a firm assurance of His present help in time of trouble.

The promise from God written by Isaiah in his prophecy for the focal verses today was a favorite and often-quoted passage of a dear friend of my husband Grover and me. The man was a stalwart minister of the gospel, a man without formal theological degrees but nevertheless scholarly in his approach to studying the Bible and imparting its truths in his messages individually to persons and corporately to the congregations he led. This country preacher had so many troubles in his life to overcome. He was a bi-vocational preacher, working at a secular job to make a living for his family. Yet Sundays and other days found him preaching and ministering to his country church congregations with compassion and love.

 

This minister’s beloved wife became quite ill, and although he sought the best medical help available for her, with his means and area for consultation, she succumbed to the disease. After a few years had passed, the minister met and married another godly woman who shared his passion for ministry and was a help-meet to him. But then she, too, was overcome with ravages of an incurable cancer and preceded him in death. Not many months after his second wife’s death, we had the privilege of visiting in his church and hearing him preach on one of his favorite passages, Isaiah 43:2. Given as testimony to his own ability to overcome and his assurance of God’s help, he recounted how “deep water…fiery trials…flames of disappointment…none, none consumed or defeated because of assurance of God’s help. Every time I read and meditate upon Isaiah 43:1-3 of think of this stalwart man of God and his testimony to overcoming difficulties because of the firm assurance of God’s help.

The verses from Isaiah also remind me of an incident in my young life when actual waters were there to threaten. During my high school years, I rode the school bus eight miles, but to get to the “bus stop” nearest my home, I walked one-half mile, a distance that had a river to cross along the path. One particular fall day a storm portended, but we did not have warnings in those days as now for expected storms. I went on to school, walking the half mile and then riding the bus the eight miles. During the day, rains deluded. In the afternoon late when I arrived at the place where I got off the bus to walk home, my father was there to meet me with our faithful farm mule, Pet. I was directed to sit behind Daddy and “hold on” as Pet carefully made her way through the flooded, rushing waters of Nottley River swollen by the day’s heavy rainfall. I’m sure, even with the mule and himself to the rescue, my father was praying that we would get safely through the debris and rising waters to the shelter of our farmhouse.

God’s assurance of help is as tender and loving as my father’s rescue of his teen-aged daughter on that dark, rainy, storm-tossed day. God ever stands ready with help for those who “pass through the waters, the rivers, the fire” of life. What He promises, God fulfills.

-Ethelene Dyer Jones October 25, 2015