Day 265 - When You Pass through the Waters... be a Witness!

Today's Reading: Isa. 43-44 and Hebrews 6

Happy Sabbath! Today's reading offers more encouragement for our weary lives... I love these passages.

"Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passes 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 was thinking about this the other day. We hear a lot of "why?" questions along the journey. "Why am I going through this? Why is God allowing this trial? Why this suffering? Why am I going thru such testings?!” You might be asking... Here’s what I think. It’s because God knows He can trust you, and He’s going to use YOUR TEST to make a beautiful TESTIMONY to help others thru their testing.... So hold on! He only holds us in the fire long enough to get those impurities burned out. "But He knoweth the way that I take. When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold..." (Job 23:10)

Ellen Whites the following in Desire of Ages:

"Those who accept Christ as their personal Savior are not left as orphans, to bear the trials of life alone. He receives them as members of the heavenly family; He bids them call His Father their Father. They are His “little ones,” dear to the heart of God, bound to Him by the most tender and abiding ties. He has toward them an exceeding tenderness, as far surpassing what our father or mother has felt toward us in our helplessness as the divine is above the human." (Desire of Ages, 327)

I also love Isa. 43:12, "Therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God."

Here's one more passage from Desire of Ages:

"Our confession of His faithfulness is Heaven’s chosen agency for revealing Christ to the world. We are to acknowledge His grace as made known through the holy men of old; but that which will be most effectual is the testimony of our own experience. We are witnesses for God as we reveal in ourselves the working of a power that is divine. Every individual has a life distinct from all others, and an experience differing essentially from theirs. God desires that our praise shall ascend to Him, marked by our own individuality. These precious acknowledgments to the praise of the glory of Disgrace, when supported by a Christlike life, have an irresistible power, that works for the salvation of souls."(Desire ofAges, 347)

 So let's take the fires of affliction, the storms of life...and allow God to grow us that we can be witnesses for His glory! I don't think there's a stronger testimony than someone who has sailed the stormy seas and come through victorious...

Tomorrow's Reading: Isa. 45-46 and Ps. 107