big enough

I just want to remind myself by posting on here that even if I get lost in difficult circumstances and 'down' feelings, God never leaves me to fend for myself or walk through them alone.  He promises that when I pass through the waters He will be with me.  Not that I'll never pass through them but that I won't go it alone. The rivers shall not overwhelm me.  He who controls the tides and tells the oceans their boundaries shall keep the rivers from overwhelming me.  No hand could hold them back but His.  One hand to hold the rivers back, the other holding mine.  Kept perfectly safe, walking through the scary waters because I know Whose hand I hold.  The hand of the One who calls me by name and says 'You are mine. You are precious in my sight.  I love you.  Fear not, for I am with you.'

 Sometimes it's not raging rivers but wild fires that threaten to burn through what small hope, I, in my frail human strength, struggle to cling to.  But much as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego can attest, I can walk through the fire and not be burned; the flames shall not consume me.  They have no power to damage me when Christ is walking with me.  For He has exchanged so much in ransom for my soul, how will He not protect that for which He gave His life?  God help me to trust in your presence and control over my life and every little circumstance that seems so big to me.  Help my vision to be focused on the hand holding mine.  Let me not watch the waves and flames; help Ali-of-little-faith to increase in faith and as a fruit of that faith rise to a level of joy that is unattainable otherwise.  Glorify yourself in me that I may show the joy of a heart resting fully on my Father for the strength necessary to pass through.  And thank you, Father, for Isaiah 43.