Love Letter Part 2

One of my favorite hymns is How Firm A Foundation. Three of its verses are based on scripture:

Verse 3

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.


Isa 41:10  Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Verses 4 and 5

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.


Isa 43:2  When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

I immediately thought of the hymn when I read Isaiah 43:2. In fact, it was already marked in my Bible. As the hymn's words are in 1st person and spoken as they are from the LORD, they just add depth to the personalization of this chapter to me.  The LORD is with me in troubles, and will not let them overtake me. He will actually bless and separate me as special to HIM. "When I see the reflection of my face" is what one gold refiner said, when asked how do you know when the gold is done being refined. Yes, and so it is with me. Until my Lord sees Himself in me, I will need refining to get my dross out.

This Sunday the Lord had my preacher preach on three words: GRACE, BLOOD, & FAITH
I may write a post on this later, but Isa 43:2 hints at grace and the hymn verse speaks of it. Grace, all sufficient. This phrase is spoken of in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. ⁸For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. ⁹And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

My pastor shared the above scripture. And a key thing he said was God says, "My grace is enough."
This spoke loudly to me because God has spoken a similar phrase to me before and I feel like it is part of my life message: HE is enough. And every morning the Lord knocks on my heart and has a sufficient amount of grace for me specifically for that particular day.

Oh, how personal my LORD is to me!