God Is With Me When I Walk Through The Fire

It’s easy to tout God will never give me more than I can handle, when life is great. But what about when the fire starts to burn? When your life is disintegrating in a pillar of smoke. When you stand as Job did with suddenly empty hands, and you feel all alone. Is God with us in the fire? To some that may seem like a silly question, but to others… to others facing the heat of the fire, perhaps they are wondering this question. Or even if God is with me then why am I walking through the fire?

There are times when God doesn’t fix it but allows us to walk through the flames. He let us walk through the pain of losing a child. The defeat of having to let go of a dream. The agony of illness, or the betrayal of friends or family. The fury of the storm and we don’t understand why. All we feel is the pain, all we see is the broken pieces the don’t look like they could ever be pieced together. 

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God Is With Me Always

In Daniel 3:16 we find 3 familiar Bible figures Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Shadrach, Mechasch, and Abednego) facing this same situation. Not only have they been kidnapped, and held in captivity for years. But now because they refused to back down on their beliefs and worship a statue -an idol-, they are about to be thrown into a fiery furnace. God is with me is about to become more real than ever before.

I think many of us can relate to these three, no we haven’t physically faced going through the fire but we’ve felt like we have. We’ve held the charred remains of our lives in exhausted hands as it crumbled into dust. We’ve felt the scorching heat trying to devour us, and born the scars from walking through the flames from this season. 

If you look at these three men’s lives, it can be a little depressing. They’ve walked through the “God didn’t fix it” stage over and over again. And we kind of have to wonder where was God while all of this happened? God is with me always, but what about the days when it doesn’t look like He is? The times that we walk through the fire anyway? We deal with the loss we prayed we would be spared from? The places where we feel alone?

God Is With Me In The Hard Places

I think sometimes God lets us walk into a hard place, into the midst of the flames because He wants to teach us to rely on Him. He needs to teach us to hold on to Him- the real Him. Not cliché phrases or ideas, but the God who sees. The God who knows. The God who is right there with you every step of the way, even when we can’t see it. So that we can recognize that God is with me, on the good days and the bad. When He feels close and when we feel all alone. And we can recognize our shepherd’s voice.

Like how a shepherd would break the legs of the lamb and then carry it, to teach it to stay near, the Lord has to break our self-reliance. To teach us to rely on Him, He’s got to bring us into situations that are too hard for us to handle so that we have no choice but to rely on Him. 

But I believe that there are also some times when He doesn’t fix the broken season right away. He allows us to walk in it. He lets others throw us in the furnace because He has a point, He needs to prove to them.  Perhaps the furnace isn’t to break us or destroy us but to make us. To fire us like choice pottery. To burn away anything that’s taken root in our lives and keeping us in bondage. 

Through The Fire – God Is With Me

Sometimes God allows us to walk through the fire so that He can step into the midst of it and sustain us, and to show others what He can do. Sometimes our biggest storm can be a beacon of hope in other’s storms to show them that God is with me in the fire.

There is another in the fire with you. It’s not always about God keeping the bad things away from your life, or fixing the broken season but who is with you in the fire. God is in control, even when it doesn’t feel like it. God will see you through this place.

He didn’t abandon Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when the king ordered them into the fire, but stepped through the fabric of time to join them in the flames. He is the God of the hills and the valleys, you will never be alone. When you walk through the fire, God will be with you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God. Isaiah 43:2-3 NIV

Bible Verses To Remind You That God Is With Me

Here are some of our favorite Bible verses to remind you that God is with me:

• Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9
• Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
• Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me;
  Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. Psalms 23:4
•  “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalm 27:1
• “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”  Deuteronomy 31:6
• “’For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.  Do not be afraid, for I myself will help you,’ declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.” ~ Isaiah 41:13-14
• “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The Lord is with me; he is my helper.” ~ Psalm 118:6-7
•  “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.” Psalm 34:7
• “Do not be afraid of them; the Lord your God himself will fight for you.” ~ Deuteronomy 3:22
•  “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”…He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.  You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.  A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you…For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways…“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.  He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him…” from Psalm 91:1-16

When The Fire Comes My God Is With Me

His grace is sufficient to see you through this season, no matter how dark. Your God is in control, and He is with me in the midst of the flames. This fire can be the thing that breaks you, or if you let it, it can be the tool the Lord uses to refine you. When you feel alone in this place remember, that God is with me. There is another in the fire with you. The one who set the stars in place, and the boundaries of the ocean, the one who stood in the flames of the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is the very same one that stands with you.

Being a Christian doesn’t make you fireproof, in many ways it’s like fixing a giant target on your back. But God is with me when I walk through the fire. His grace gets me through when the heat threatens to overtake me. So that when I reach the other side of this season I can I leave it all here and step out without the stench of smoke clinging to me.

Before you go, check these out!

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• God In The Storm – 6 Powerful Ways To Trust God When The Flood Waters Rise
• Holding On To God When Life Brings Us To Our Knees
• God In The Storm 6 Powerful Ways To Trust God When The Flood Waters Rise