A Promise to Hold
OK friends, I want to tell you a story about a crazy car ride and what I learned from it. I was driving home from a wedding that I did in Muldersdrift, which is just outside of Joburg. And as I drove through those hills and got onto the open road, a storm - a crazy storm - was brewing right in front of me. I could see these dark clouds and lightning.
I remember thinking to myself, oh boy, here we go. It was a Saturday around 6:00 PM. The roads are not that busy, but the people on the roads at that time can often drive pretty recklessly. The wind began to pick up. And as I looked ahead, I thought, OK, I'm going to hit some serious rain here.
Finding Peace in Life's Storms
And so I began to pray and I said, "Lord, please come and protect me, keep me safe." And as I was praying, some scripture came into my mind. It was Isaiah 43, where God says "Do not fear. For I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you."
I got to tell you, as I looked at that storm cloud, those words comforted me in a great way. "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. They will not sweep over you." As I thought about the torrent of rain that I was about to hit, I thought, OK, God is with me. God is with me. I'm going to be OK.
Embracing God's Promises in Difficult Times
I thought this was a good metaphor. As you hit the road of life, maybe you're looking ahead and you're seeing storm clouds and you're thinking, oh man, the rain is coming. Maybe you're in the middle of a storm already. Maybe these words can be of comfort to you as they were to me. God says, "Do not fear. I know you by name. You are My child. And as you go through the waters, I'm there with you. And when you pass through the rivers, the torrents. They're not going to sweep over you."
A verse like this can really keep you going when you're tempted to give up, and it certainly helped me in this drive that I was on. My prayer is that this verse will mean more to us than just keeping us safe on the road, but that it will remind you whatever storm you're going through, that God is with you, even as the waters beat down.
