December 30

Daniel 3:16-18 “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King 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 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.”

We know the stories of the Old Testament and the miraculous rescues by God of His people. We are familiar with the 10 plagues of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the tumbling of the walls of Jericho, Daniel in the Lion’s Den, these 3 guys in the fiery furnace, David and Goliath, Samson and the Philistines and many more. The God that performed these mighty acts of old is the same God that we serve today. He is the Great I AM not the Great I WAS. Whatever that mountain is that you face in your life right now or whatever fiery furnace you encounter in the coming year is no match for our All Powerful El Shaddai. We need to have faith that He can come through for us the way He did for them.

He does not love you any less than He loved them. You are not any less important or special to Him than they were then. You have as much purpose as they did then. There is no place in the Bible that states that miracles were only for Biblical times and all around this globe God is still doing miracles big and small. We need to change our mindset and quit selling ourselves short when it comes to God. He is still able. He is still the Great I AM. So what is different about now? What is different between us and them?

One thing that may be different between Moses, Joshua, David, Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and us is our relationship with God. They certainly were leaning in to God and walking with Him in close communion everyday and as a result they believed Him.

Another thing that is obvious from the verse above is that they were willing to face persecution for their faith, even death, and saw that as a sort of rescue in itself. They knew they would be delivered from the King’s hand either through a miracle or through death. They knew He was able to miraculously bring them through the fire but EVEN IF He chose to deliver them via death they were still not going to worship the idol.

Maybe that is something we need to examine in our own life. Are we worshiping the idols of this world? Is our time, treasure or talent invested in things of this world more than or when they should be invested in things of this kingdom? Are we ready to face persecution for our faith? We certainly are not facing fiery furnaces or lions’ dens right now but are we willing to give up things that are distracting us from the will of God in our life? Maybe if we were leaning in to God and completely surrendered to His will then we would see some of those miracles in our lives now?

As you know those 3 men were met by Jesus in that furnace and even their hair was unsinged (this is amazing considering that the guards that threw them in the furnace died from the heat near the door.) They were never the same, they experienced Jesus before He ever was born here and their lives were never the same.

You know who else was never the same? Nebuchadnezzar! He was changed by the experience of those three men.

Daniel 3:28 “Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.”

You could have that kind of impact on someone. We are the light, the only way this world will get the message is through our lives and how we handle our adversities may be the most impactful. Determine today that you will serve God EVEN IF…