In Psalm 23 we read the words of David: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4).
In another passage of Scripture, concerning the Apostle Peter, who was imprisoned at that time, it says: “And when Herod wanted to bring him out, Peter was sleeping that night between two soldiers, bound by two chains, and the guards were keeping watch over the prison” (Acts 12:6).
These two scriptures speak of people who had to endure hardship in their lives. David says, "Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death"; another translation reads, "Even if I must walk through the valley of the shadow of death." Sometimes we have to walk paths that are incomprehensible to us and that we wouldn't actually want to take... David understood something important in life and that's why he says, "Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..."
Peter, however, who was in prison, also passed through the valley of death in a sense. If we know the background to this event, we remember that the church was growing and strengthened in faith at that time, so much so that even pagans came to God and believed in Jesus Christ. What a wonderful revival! God was at work even among the pagans! Peter was one of the pillars of the church; he was very close to God and blessed. He experienced many miracles and signs, but then came the moment in his life when he had to walk through the valley of death.
David's life experiences are reflected in the psalm, which begins with the words: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake…” And the next verse says: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…”
Sometimes the Lord leads us down paths that don't meet our expectations at all, but we must walk them. God knows why... Perhaps we are meant to learn something from one situation or another; perhaps God wants to draw us closer to Himself in this way; or perhaps He is protecting us from great misfortune? God knows, but we must remain calm and wait until help comes from the Lord. We should entrust all our worries to Jesus.
Let us return, however, to the Apostle Peter, to the events described in Acts 12:6: “Herod wanted to bring him before the authorities; that night Peter slept between two soldiers, chained with two chains, and the guards watched at the prison doors.” We know that before these events Herod had raised his hand against James, the brother of John, and killed him with the sword, but afterward he seized Peter and threw him into prison.
When Christ walked the earth, James, John, and Peter were very close disciples of His and also very close to one another. Jesus often took them with him to particularly important moments, for example, to pray on the Mount of Transfiguration. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were called "Sons of Thunder" by the Lord because they were very zealous and passionate disciples. They were sometimes even overly zealous. When Jesus was not welcomed in a Samaritan village, the sons of Zebedee wanted to bring down fire from heaven, as Elijah had once done, to destroy the inhabitants of that village. On one occasion, they came to Jesus with their mother, and she begged Him, "...say that these two sons of mine may sit, one at Your right hand and the other at Your left, in Your kingdom" (Matthew 20:21).
Naturally, the other disciples didn't like this, and the remaining ten were outraged by Zebedee's sons. But James, John, and Peter were very close to Jesus. And now James, their dear friend and brother, is no longer alive; he has been killed. Only a short time had passed after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, and James was already killed for Jesus' sake. But that wasn't enough for Herod; he also seized Peter and imprisoned him.
And we read: “That night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, chained by two chains, and the guards were standing at the prison door.” Note: “Peter was sleeping!” When we have problems and worries, we sleep very poorly, sometimes not at all. Peter, however, knows perfectly well that as soon as the Sabbath is over, he might be next to be killed because the people liked what Herod was doing. And yet he sleeps! His heart is completely calm and at peace, and that has deeply impressed me. For we, too, can have such a close connection to Jesus Christ. When we encounter difficulties in life, we can have the assurance through the Word of God that God can give us rest in Jesus Christ.
When these events happened to Peter, the church prayed diligently, and the Lord decided to intervene, as we read in the following verse: “And behold, an angel of the Lord entered, and a light shone into the prison cell. [The angel] nudged Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, ‘Get up quickly!’ And the chains fell off his hands.” God performed a miracle! Amazingly, Peter continued to sleep when the angel entered the cell; such rest was bestowed upon him by the Lord that the angel even had to nudge him on the side to awaken him. Thus, God miraculously helped Peter.
When we face difficulties, God helps us too, even if He has to perform a miracle. We, too, should have the peace and tranquility that Peter had in his heart, especially in our time, so that we may feel safe in Jesus' hands.
The Yoke and Burden of Jesus Christ
In the pages of Holy Scripture, Jesus left us wonderful words: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). How important it is for us to take Jesus’ yoke upon us, for here on earth we can bear a very different yoke.
Sometimes, when we believe in Jesus Christ, we think that everything should always be perfect for us and our lives should run smoothly, but often that's not the case. We sometimes feel the yoke on our neck and the burden on our shoulders, but there is someone who wants to carry this burden with us. "No temptation has befallen you except those that are common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Where the Russian translation says, "God will grant relief," we read in German, "God will also give a way out of this temptation." God has a plan for us; He grants us relief—His shoulder is beside us so that we can bear our yoke and stand firm, and He does not leave us alone but walks with us. We don't yet know everything, but He has already prepared a way out for us from every situation we find ourselves in. And it is very important to remember this. The people around us carry a burden on their shoulders that weighs them down—it is the burden of sin. We carry the burden of Christ. Yes, it is not always easy for us either, but we have Jesus, who gives us rest and places His shoulder beneath us, granting us relief. And it is very important for us to have peace and rest in Jesus Christ.
I am well and I have peace in the Lord.
In our community in Germany we often sing a song called 'When peace with God pervades my soul' (I don't know if there is a Russian version of it), the literal translation from German to Russian is approximately as follows:
When peace with God fills my soul,
whether storms also threaten from afar
My heart always sings in faith:
I am well, I am well in the Lord.Refrain:
I am well, I am well in the Lord!
I am well, I am well in the Lord!
The original version of this song was written in English by Horatio Spafford: “When peace like a river (It is well with my soul)”.
In 1871, a great fire broke out in Chicago. Approximately 300 people lost their lives and over 100,000 lost their homes.
Horatio Spafford also fell victim to this catastrophe. He, a lawyer and very wealthy man, had invested his entire fortune in real estate, which was destroyed in the fire. Even more devastating for him, however, was the loss of his only son during the blaze. Nevertheless, he continued to advocate for the homeless, the poor, and desperate city residents.
About two years later, he decided to visit England with his family and then travel to Europe. However, Spafford had to stay in America for an important business meeting and sent his wife and four daughters to England alone on the ship "Ville du Havre," promising to follow them soon.
However, this ship collided with an English sailing vessel and sank almost immediately. Four of his daughters perished. His wife was one of the 47 survivors of the disaster. After receiving a telegram from her about what had happened, he immediately set out to find her.
It seems as if Horatio Spafford has every reason to blame God, yet despite everything he holds fast to God.
Later, in Chicago, the Spaffords had another daughter, Grace, in January 1881, and in August 1881, when Grace was only seven months old, the Spaffords moved to Jerusalem. They helped found a group called the "American Colony in Jerusalem," whose mission was to serve the poor. Thanks to their efforts, many Muslims and Jews came to believe in Jesus Christ.
During the voyage from America to Jerusalem, as her daughter Bertha later recounted, the captain of the ship they were traveling on summoned Spafford to the bridge. "It's precisely calculated," he said, "I believe we are passing over the spot where the ship Ville du Havre sank. There, three miles below the surface, lie your daughters..."
That night, Horatio Spafford wrote a magnificent hymn in his cabin, proclaiming the comforting peace of believers: "I am well in the Lord." Such faith and such peace the Lord placed in this man's heart.
Everything we have in this life we have from the Lord, and He has the right to take away what we possess. It's so easy to talk about this from the pulpit, but if we truly have peace with God, if we have rest in Jesus Christ, even a storm cannot harm us. Remember Job and what he said: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21).
Guardian angel
We might never imagine that something could happen to us that completely turns our lives upside down. But sometimes we have to go down that path. My wife and I have seven sons and one daughter, all healthy, and we are very grateful to the Lord for that. When our seventh son (Mika-Gabriel, born on December 17, 2022) was due, things didn't go as planned. When we were already at the hospital and my wife had her final medical checkups, everything was fine, but for some reason, labor didn't start. So the doctors decided to induce labor with medication.
In Germany, a contract is signed with the midwife of one's choice even before the birth. We chose a midwife who had already delivered one of our sons. She is very experienced and does her job well. Ursula (that's the midwife's name) occasionally came into our room, as there were several women in labor at that time who needed her assistance. And the next time she came in and said, "I need to check on the mother and child again," I was already in the room. She examined my wife and then said to me in a normal, calm voice, "Mr. Hermann, please go into the hallway and shout as loudly as you can... call the head physician."
At first I didn't understand, then I went into the hallway and started calling the head doctor. I didn't understand what the point of that was, but I ran and told the doctor, "The midwife is calling you..." And at that moment, when the midwife saw that I was flustered, she shouted from the room at the top of her lungs, "Emergency C-section!" After she said this, everything around my wife started moving in an instant: Doctors rushed from all sides; I had never seen doctors move so fast. Even I had to help... "Pass me the syringe," the doctor said... I handed it... Not that one! Another one! So I had to hand it to the midwife... And at that moment everything happened very quickly... My wife was taken to the operating room, where (as I later learned) a C-section was performed, and just five minutes later the baby was delivered...
I stayed alone in my room and didn't understand what was happening... What about my wife and child? Is everything alright? I didn't know... I just managed to write in our family prayer group: please pray for Claudia! And at that moment, the Holy Spirit began to pray within me. I had never prayed with such words in my life, words that God had placed in my heart. As it is written: "For we do not know what to pray for or how to pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."
I, too, didn't know what to pray for and didn't understand what was happening, but the Holy Spirit did! The midwife, an older, very experienced woman, said to me in a calm voice, 'Go into the hallway and call the head doctor.' Later she came back into my room and said, 'Your child has a very strong guardian angel from God! At the moment everything happened, I had the feeling that someone had told me: You must examine the woman in labor again!'
It turned out that when she examined my wife, our son's heart had stopped beating... There was no heartbeat during the operation either... When the midwife said, 'I had the feeling that someone was telling me: examine mother and child again!', I understood that Jesus had sent her to us. Later, the head surgeon also came into my room and said the same words: 'You have a very, very strong guardian angel!' And for that, I want to thank and praise our Lord. There's a saying: God comes, at best, just in time! And that's really true; God had this whole situation under control and came just in time. I thank Him that we are under His protection.
Yes, even we Christians sometimes have difficult times, but God helps us to bear our burdens. And may the Lord help us to always have peace and tranquility in Jesus Christ, so that we may say together with the psalmist David: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 22:4).
Dennis Hermann,
Herford Municipality
This text was translated using DeepL and only lightly proofread. We apologize for any inaccuracies in the text.