When you pass through the waters, God will be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they won't sweep you away. When you walk through fire, you won't be burned. Notice the promises aren't about avoiding the waters or rivers or fire. They're about His presence within them.
This is such a different promise than the one we're often taught to expect from faith. We think following God means avoiding trouble. Isaiah's saying it means not being alone in trouble, not being destroyed by it. You still go through. You still face the water and fire. The difference is companionship and preservation within the difficulty.
I've noticed this distinction matter most when calamity actually comes. I've suffered disappointment, loss, betrayal, illness. And I've found the promise wasn't that these things wouldn't happen, but that something in me wouldn't be destroyed by them. That I wouldn't be swept away. That God's presence would contain me, hold me, preserve my essential self even in the burning.
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