The Protected Life

But now, this is what the Lord says -- he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, 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 walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. (Isaiah 4 1,3) Here is another mediation that I have struggled with. The text of the meditation talked about God not keeping us from dangers (true) and that he will walk with us through the danger (also true) then the meditation says " With the Lord walking at our side, we will reach the goal of our jouney unharmed." (False) At least this is false in my mind. Yes there will be trouble, yes, God will walk us through it, however there is no biblical promise that I can find that says we will come out alive and unscathed. The more I struggled with the words of the meditation, I again realized I was focusing on the words of a person and not on the words of God. God's Word says we were created by God, redeemed by God and called by name adn we are his! How awesome is that! We are not a number to God, no matter how many children God has, we knows us by name! He also promises to walk with us through the troubled times, sometimes we will come out unharmed and stronger and some times we are called to martyrdom. Even in the last example, God is with us utterly and totally.