When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned or scorched, nor will the flame kindle upon you. Isaiah 43:2, Amplified Bible (AMP)

Joni Eareckson Tada, the Founder and CEO of Joni and Friends International Disability Center, is an international advocate for people with disabilities. A diving accident in 1967 left Joni Eareckson, then 17, a quad­riplegic in a wheelchair, without the use of her hands. After two years of rehabilitation, she emerged with new skills and a fresh determination to help others in similar situations.

In a recent edition of her short-feature radio program, “Joni and Friends,” Joni discussed her good friend, Bobby. Bobby was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer a little more than two and a half years ago, and since that time she has battled the disease with both traditional and experimental cancer treatments. Not long ago, Bobby’s doctor told her that there was nothing else they could do. In a phone conversation with Joni, Bobby told her that she was completely at peace with dying. But, she confessed, two days prior she told her doctor that she was afraid of pain. After arriving home, Bobby felt the Holy Spirit prompting her with thoughts like these:

Bobby, why did you tell your doctor that? Haven’t I sustained you through pain in the past? Didn’t I sustain Stephen while he was being stoned? Haven’t I sustained the martyrs throughout the ages who suffered terribly for My name? Didn’t I sustain my Son, Jesus, through His pain on the cross? I will be with you every step of the way!

The next day she returned to her doctor’s office and encouraged her doctor not to worry; she knew her Savior was going to sustain her every step of the way.

Isaiah 43:2 reminds us that God will sustain us through trials and tribulations of all shapes and sizes. As Joni explains in her program:

To be sure, God is not saying that floods and fire will never physically harm His children. But, what He is saying is that our souls will never be swept away. Our souls will never be set ablaze and destroyed. God has removed from us the only kind of suffering that can ever harm us, and that is separation from Him. This means all suffering that now touches Bobby’s life, my life, or your life, all of it, is designed by God to make your soul great – to strenghthen your soul through the flood of trials, to refine our souls through the heat of fiery troubles. So, train your soul today not to think otherwise about your hardships.

Instead, think on God’s sustaining power, and think on how He can use you today, through your hardships, to inspire others to seek Him out!