Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

February 16, 2018

by Pastor Hawtree

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE:

TO KEEP MY HEAD ABOVE WATER (part 2)

Isaiah 43:2 When thou passest 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 first want to deal with the fact that the verse says “when” we pass through the waters, not “if”. If you are the kind of person that gets very discouraged every time you have to face some deep waters, then you will be discouraged much of your life. God offers no avenue in life where an individual can be exempt from passing through deep waters. Let me remind you that you will pass through those kind of waters if you’re Christian, and if you’re not a Christian. Being saved or not being saved does not keep us from facing that. The big difference here though is that God has made a promise to His children that when they do go through that, He “will be with thee”. What a difference it makes when He is with us. My mind is reminded of a hymn that we sing, “No, never alone, No, never alone. He’s promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone”. “Christ in us, the hope of glory.” Where we go, God goes.

The second observation I want to make is the significance in the word “waters”. May I remind you in Genesis chapter one that God created water. In verse 2 the Bible says “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”. Then in verse seven it says that God “divided the waters”. And then in verse nine we are told that God gathered the waters together into one place. All that to say this. God created the waters, God cut the waters, God collected together the waters, and believe me God can still control the waters. And if He lives in us, and where we go He goes, then we have nothing to fear. Why? Because if the waters cannot overtake God, then they cannot overtake us, because He lives in us.

Thirdly, God promises that the waters would not overflow us. This word in the Hebrew literally means to “drown”. No notice here that God did not say that the waters would not flow. God did not say that the waters would not get high. God did not say that the waters would not get rough. God did not say that we would never have to struggle, swim, or get uncomfortable. God just promised that we would not drown. I guess we would have to ask Jonah, or Paul, or Peter, or many others about that. But I think I would like to center my questions to the children of Israel. If anybody passed “through” the waters, they did. If anybody crossed over without being drowned, they did. If anybody ever doubted God, they did. And yet. With walls of water surrounding every step, God took them “through” on dry ground.

I wonder why they doubted God? I wonder why we doubt God? Sometimes we focus so much on the water, instead of focusing on the God who controls the water. I am persuaded that He is able to keep my head above the water!