Bible Text: Isaiah 43:2-3 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over 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, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior… Isaiah 43:2-3

When missionary Ray Rising was riding his motorcycle back to Loma Linda, the headquarters of the group he was working with in Colombia, on the night of March 31, 1994, little did he realize how his life was about to change. Just before he arrived home after he had been visiting families in nearby Puerto Lleras, a band of armed guerrillas took him captive. For the next 810 days, his life was on hold.

Yet, in a sense, life went on for him, just differently from what he had planned. Moved from place to place in the Colombian jungles, at first Ray was angry and fearful. Then he began realizing God was still there, and furthermore He was working in his life. Of that difficult period of time, he wrote, “God was making me into something on the inside that my captors needed to see on the outside.”

On June 16, 1996, Ray was finally released. The night he was released the guerrillas lined up and shook hands with him, and that gave him the opportunity to express verbally the faith he had lived for two-and-a-half years. His words, “God was making me into something on the inside that my captors needed to see on the outside,” really spoke to my heart.

Sometimes we get waylaid by the guerrillas of life and all our plans get shoved aside. Sometimes we are held captive by an automobile accident, an illness, or financial reversals, or relationships that go south when you think they should be going north. Do you like it? Not a bit. Neither did Ray Rising. After all, he had gone to Colombia to help the people. If he ever thought, “This is what I get for serving God,” he didn’t dwell on it. He knew that through the difficult time, God was working inside, and he desperately wanted his captors to see it on the outside.

When trouble strikes at your door, it tends to show what’s really inside. One of the reasons we don’t handle trouble better is that there isn’t a great deal of strength within which helps us withstand the pressure without. Naturally, no one plans on disaster striking. No one thinks that difficulty is going to produce the tranquillity and peace which can keep you amidst the storm.

I shall never forget a conversation which I had with Wang Ming Dao, the father of the House Church Movement in China, shortly before his death. This saintly man had been in prison for 22 years at the hands of the communists, who wanted to drive every vestige of religion from the country. Brother Wang had labored in a coal mine in Northern China, and his hands were gnarled and the veins stood out. Hard work and physical suffering had been his constant companions.

“Brother Wang,” I said, speaking quite loudly since his donated hearing aid wasn’t exactly a state-of-the-art instrument, “Many years ago I read your book, A Stone Made Smooth.” In his book Wang talked about persecution and difficulty and how God uses this to polish our lives as abrasion does a stone in a river bed. He quickly responded, “Stone still not yet smooth,” and smiled.

Does God choose some and give them an extra dose of polishing? No. There is no rhyme or reason as to whom God allows to face the tough hour, but of one thing I am very certain. God walks through the dark valley with every one of His children, and He keeps on working within so that our enemies can see the changes without. When you are taken captive by tough times, remember Ray’s powerful words, “God was making me into something on the inside that my captors needed to see on the outside,” and ask Him to make the message loud and clear.

Resource reading: Isaiah 43:1-6