Are you going through something difficult? Is today- or maybe this whole year or season- hard? Are you wondering how you will get through this thing? I’ve been there. Most people I know are walking through something they never saw coming. Whatever you are going through in this roller coaster of life, take comfort in this: You are never alone. 

The Bible is filled with accounts of people God loved going through unfathomably difficult things. As I think about my own life, I realize God has never promised He will take us around the hard times. 

But He does promise He will lead us and be with us through them. 

In the book of Isaiah, God tells of His love and redemption despite anger at His people’s disobedience. “But now thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you” (Isaiah 43:1-2 ESV). 

 This scripture reinforces what we read throughout the Bible. The creator of the universe was with His people in the garden, the flood, the pit, and the Red Sea. He led His chosen people through the wilderness. He was present in their captivity, the fiery furnace, and exile from their home. God was with those He loved through barrenness, famine, slavery, loss, estrangement, rejection, persecution, sacrifice, and death.

 And no matter what you are going through today, God is with you. 

If you draw near to Him, the Lord will guide you through to the other side of what you are facing. He already knows what is waiting for you there.