"...if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good.But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?"
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, the we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." (Daniel 3:15-18)
We find in the third chapter of Daniel three men of God who are being tempted by satan through a king to bow thier knee to him. At what cost will we sell out God? For riches? For promotion? To please people? To avoid persecution? The Bible tells us that "whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me (Jesus) will find it." (Matt.16:25)
The scripture that stands out to me in this passage is found in verse 18 that says, "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not..."
We've heard teaching through the years where we are lead to believe that all God wants us is "blessed" meaning if we have "faith" we can avoid hardships. We frown when we have prayed and prayed and yet God doesn't seem to come and rescue us. Why is that?
I believe these three men had it down pat. They knew God could come at any moment and save them. They had faith that he could and would! But...they had enough faith to know that even if God decided NOT to come and rescue them, they wouldn't bow to another god! They wouldn't sell out there king! They wouldn't let it damage thier faith!
What about you and I? Do we ever find ourselves in a situation where we are offended at God because he hasn't seemed to come to the rescue yet? Are we tempted to bow our knee to the tempter?
Find out in Part II why it is God may seem to "hold off" in rescuing us from our trials right away.
4 comments:
Great post. I was missing these!
Beck,
Your article reminded me of the way I prayed last night. I thought about the centurion who told Jesus that all he had to do was say that his servant was healed. The centurin understood who Jesus was and he believed that Jesus could heal his servant. I felt a comfort when I prayed this prayer last night. My rayer was, "God, You can heal me if you want to. All yo have to do is say it, or touch me, or do whatever you want, but I know that You can heal me if YOu want to. Beck, I had never prayed like this before and it gave me a peace that other healing prayers had not given me. It is all about God and what He wants to do. I know this and have confidence in this prayer. All I have to do is obey HIm and He will do His will. love dad
Hey Beck!
I missed your posts!!! I love ya'll so much, thanks for keeping me encouraged, and challenging me to live like christ everyday. Without you and Jodi, i wouldn't be the same! I lvoe ya'll, and your always in my prayers!
ARE YOU READY FOR SOME PAINTBALL! YAY!!!
Hey Beck!
Those are some really awesome post! I was beginning to wonder if you were still alive (lol)... See you tonight!
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