When we are in the middle of hard times, we sometimes pray: “God, please take this away.”
Take away the grief.
Take away the exhaustion.
Take away the uncertainty.
We want the pain gone. We want the storm to end. We want life to return to the way it used to be.
In my case, but God didn’t remove the fire. Instead, He met me in it.
The Prayers That Seem Unanswered
If you’ve ever walked through a season of loss, you know what it feels like to pray desperate prayers and wonder why heaven seems quiet. After the storm that destroyed my home and the unravelling of the ministry that followed, I wanted restoration. I wanted clarity. I wanted relief.
What I received instead was presence. God didn’t answer my prayers by removing the hardship. He answered them by sitting with me in the middle of it.
The Bible gives us a picture of this in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 3). When King Nebuchadnezzar threw them into the fiery furnace, God could have extinguished the flames instantly. That’s what I would have asked for: “Lord, don’t let me go in at all.”
But instead of preventing the fire, God joined them in it. Nebuchadnezzar looked and said, “Didn’t we throw three men into the fire? But I see four…”
The miracle wasn’t that the fire never happened; it was that they weren’t alone in it. And that’s exactly what I experienced in my own season of fire.
What the Fire Teaches Us?
If God always removed the fire, we’d never learn what it means to be sustained in the middle of it. We’d never discover the strength of His presence when everything else is stripped away. Here are three lessons the fire taught me:
1. The Fire Refines Us
Fire doesn’t just destroy, it purifies. It reveals what’s essential and burns away what isn’t. In my own life, the fire exposed where I had been relying too much on performance, approval, or control. It stripped those things away and reminded me that my identity was rooted in God, not in what I accomplished.
2. The Fire Deepens Our Dependence
When life is easy, it’s tempting to think we’re in control. But the fire makes you desperate. It drives you to prayer, to surrender, to reliance on God in a way comfort never could. My most honest, raw, faith-filled prayers didn’t come in seasons of success; they came in seasons of fire.
3. The Fire Reveals God’s Nearness
I used to think God’s goodness meant He would protect me from pain. Now I know His goodness is even greater: He’s with me in the pain. The fire showed me that His presence is not distant or conditional. It is steady, unshakable, and nearer than I imagined.
There were many days when I wanted to give up. When the fire felt too hot and the weight too heavy. But each time, God reminded me that faith is not about escaping the flames, it’s about trusting Him in them.
Final Thought
If I could go back to that night when my roof collapsed and everything felt like it was falling apart, I would still pray for God to take it away. That’s human. That’s honest.
But I would also remind myself of something I know now: sometimes the miracle isn’t the fire being removed, it’s finding God right there in the flames. So, if you’re standing in the fire today, hold on because you are not alone.
I share more about walking through the fire in my book, Resilient Hearts: Shaping Perspective, Embracing the Reframe. If you’re searching for hope in the middle of your hardest season, I’d love for you to join me in these pages.