"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you." Isaiah 43:2

Ever since it was dictated by the Holy Spirit to Isaiah, this scripture has carried innumerable saints through every conceivable trial imagina­ble. In its context, this promise was made— and has been kept—to Israel. No people have been tested for so long as have the Jews. Time and again it has looked like they were finished, only to have God deliver them out of the fires of genocide and the Holocaust and from the waters of evil dictators of surrounding nations that even today seek to drown them.

The children of Israel knew these words were not merely to be taken as symbolic rhetoric that they would experience only in heaven. They had crossed a literal Red Sea and River Jordan where they saw God's deliverance and their enemies met God's doom. And the three uncompro­mising Hebrew young men saw literal flames seek to envelope them but emerged unscathed and unsinged.

So shall it be with you and me, dear friend. Notice that our scripture does not say "If" we go through deep and fiery trials but "When" we go through them. Tough times are guaranteed to those who walk the path of God. But unlike the man and woman who say "No" to the Savior and must suffer their own difficult trials alone, we have the constant compan­ionship of the Lord and His guarantee that "I will be with thee."

Look back and see what your Heavenly Father has already brought you through. Then face each of your "todays" knowing that your deepest waters and most intense flames will not be allowed to drown or consume you but only to strengthen, purify and confirm your total reliance on God.

My prayer: "Thank You, Lord, for all the deep and fiery trials You have already brought me through. Teach me to trust Your precious promise that You will be with me each day, all the way, come what may."

"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1)
The ST. PAUL SCHOOL, with Frank Eiklor, Eileen Young and Cecilia Contreras