"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Daniel 3:17, 18 (NIV)
This is my most favorite story from Sunday School! Talk about confidence and faith. Here these men are, in a foreign land far from the Presence of God (the promised land and the temple) and yet they are sure that God sees them and that God is able to deliver them, and so they shake their fists at the king. However they aren’t sure that God wants to deliver them (that would be presumption). They aren’t sure that it is God’s good and pleasing will to deliver them from this horrible death, and so they tell the king this and then refuse to forsake their God.
Now that I am older, I recognize the parallel for older Christians in this age of grace. We are quite confident that God has the ability to heal us and deliver us from all sorts of terrible illnesses and death, and yet we realize that God may not be willing to deliver us. I wish I could say that we are OK with this truth, though I know that even reading these words will expose the turmoil inside us over prayers that are answered with NO. Yet all around me, I witness Christians in these situations who refuse to stop worshiping God. (At Parkdale, Cecil Hinze comes to mind, and there are many others as well) Their confidence was not that God will allow them to escape death. Nope; their confidence was that their Lord will walk with them through the fire of death and that He will deliver them safely to the other side. Oh friend, may God give each one of us the measure of faith we need to face death like these three men.
No comments:
Post a Comment