Streams of Mercy

In Presbyterian Women, we continue our study of “God’s Promise: I am with you.” Earlier lessons reminded us that God is with us wherever we are; God is with us in our uncertainty and in our discouragement; God is with us in times of searching and in times when we’re powerless. Tonight’s lesson reminds us that God is with us in our trials.

One of the challenges of tracing a repeated promise through the pages of scripture, as we are doing in this study, is that the context in which God’s promise is spoken is ever changing, and often the context affects how we hear God’s promise.

We were challenged to share times of trial we’ve faced in our individual lives, when we needed to be reminded of God’s presence, and to tell of our experiences of God’s presence with us in such times. With the promise of God’s presence comes God’s activity in our lives, strengthening, helping, upholding, redeeming and rescuing us.

We read the following passage: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, and you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow…” (Isaiah 43:1-3) God does not say “if you pass through the waters” but rather “when you pass through the waters” – for all of us will do just that time and again as we journey through this life. Those deep waters may be the pain of loss, betrayal by a friend, a life-changing illness, financial problems, addictions, disappointment, the battle of mental illness, struggles with our children and our children’s children, the death of a loved one, or any number of other challenges on life’s journey. God’s promise to be with us always is proved in those deep waters.

The tangible, hand-holding presence of God transforms our trials and offers us the assurance that trials, when they do come, do not have the final word. “The God who says ‘you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you’ (Isaiah 43:4) conveys again and again the same message: I will always be there. I will see you through this. I will never abandon you. I will be with you always.”

Giving thanks for God’s promise – “I am with you”, and for those streams of mercy, never ceasing.

-Elizabeth