Through Troubled Waters

“Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20 (NIV) Now and then you run across some lines in a song that just kind of hit you. As a songwriter, I hear a good one and tend to take notice of the way the words are put together. I find it really fascinating! The other day I stumbled on an old 1972 Tom T. Hall song on Satellite Radio that just kept cycling through my head. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Soooo, I googled it and saved the words. It was a song about a person’s relationship with God, aptly titled “Me and Jesus.” The third verse talks about Jesus bringing us through all of our troubles, trials and heartaches, and concludes with the thought, “He ain’t gonna forsake me now!” It reminded me of a verse in Isaiah . . . “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you” Isaiah 43:2 (NIV). We don’t read that He’ll shield us from all troubles and storms, but that He’d be with us through them. Time after time, that truth comes through in everyday life situations. Storms of relationships, careers, battered dreams, finances, health and family hit us all from time to time. At times we may feel overwhelmed by it all, but the Lord is there to hold us up. We can trust Him to pull us through each tempest we face. And like that old country song says, “Jesus brought me through all of my troubles.” t’s so good to have that kind of connection with our Creator! — Kene Jackson   Council Fire is a collaboration with Intertribal Life Ministries and Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. The Council Fire Daily Devotional Book Set is available on the Intertribal Life Ministries website. Learn more about Council Fire at councilfire365.org