Remember those fire-walking and fire-praising guys, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Bible? We may feel like we\u2019ve experienced an inferno of suffering this year, but nothing compared to the fiery furnace those guys lived through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They wouldn\u2019t cower to King Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s command to bow to his golden statue which enraged the king. So they were punished by being thrown into a burning fiery furnace that was amped up seven times hotter than a normal fire. But what did they receive for their faith and steadfastness in the belief of their one, true God? It says in Daniel 3, that \u201cthe hair of their heads was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them.\u201d The bonus was King Neb blessing the God of those brave men, and promoting them to govern Babylon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a story of what complete trust in God looks like — no matter the intimidation and lies of the enemy. It is a story of God\u2019s amazing grace \u2013 to not only keep them (and us) from fiery death, but of the rewards that come from total dependence on God. They pointed King Neb to God. When you and I trust God despite our suffering, we\u2019ll also point unbelievers to Him, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, let\u2019s take a test to see how we\u2019ve faired during the testing of our faith during the last eight months. By the way we handled our inconvenience, our stress, our pain, and concerns, was it a great witness to the world of our faith and trust in our Father? Frankly, you and I don\u2019t measure up as great witnesses for God when life is good. Anyone can serve God during those times. But tough times are a different story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those three Hebrew guys were Daniel\u2019s friends who faced certain death by defying the king\u2019s commands. But they trusted God and He rescued them in a miraculous way. They impressed the king with their faith and fiery determination. So, I pose this question to you and me today \u201cWhat are we willing to die for?\u201d If we don\u2019t know what we\u2019re willing to die for, we\u2019ll never truly live. We\u2019ll only exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here we are thousands of years later talking about those brave Hebrew men. They faced the heat and conquered. Without the heat, we wouldn\u2019t know this story. The same is true with us. Sometimes God brings new life to others because we trusted Him through the fires in our lives. Sometimes we are drawn closer to God when we see other people\u2019s responses to the fires they\u2019ve gone through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I, for one, know that I speak to you, my dear friends, because of the fires of tough times in my life \u2013 those that I prevailed through because God was with me \u2013 just like He was with those three Hebrew guys. And you, too, will prevail if you invite God to be with you during your times of fiery trials! Keep the Holy Spirit fire extinguisher close at hand and you\u2019ll prevail with a testimony of coming out of our fiery trials with not a hair singed and not even smelling like smoke!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Remember those fire-walking and fire-praising guys, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Bible? We may feel like we\u2019ve experienced an inferno of suffering this year, but nothing compared to the fiery furnace those guys lived through. They wouldn\u2019t cower to King Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s command to bow to his golden statue which enraged the king. So they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18916,16139,18917,18918],"tags":[18907,1210,18911,1769,18908,18912,18909,641,18915,18913,777,18904,40,18910,18906,16054,18905,18914,18903,6591,5514],"class_list":["post-13351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3-hebrews","category-fire","category-golden-statute","category-trust-in-god","tag-abednego","tag-blog","tag-bow-to-golden-statue","tag-christian","tag-daniel","tag-daniel-3","tag-fiery-furnace","tag-fire","tag-fire-extinguisher","tag-hair-not-singed","tag-holy-spirit","tag-inferno","tag-inspiration","tag-king-nebuchadnezzar","tag-meshach","tag-one-true-god","tag-shadrach","tag-smell-of-fire","tag-some-like-it-hot","tag-tough-times","tag-trust-in-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13353,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13351\/revisions\/13353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}