Three things I have learned
about walking by faith…
Daniel 3:16-18 (NIV) 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, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
I you have spent any time at all in church as a kid you probably have heard the story of the three Hebrew boys and the fiery furnace. If not, lee me recap, there are three boys, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego (not their real names – long story for another time…) Anyway, these boys have been commanded, along with the rest of the Babylonian Empire, to boy down and worship an idol that was made by the King, Nebuchadnezzar. As you read above in The Message version of the Bible, they said “No!” This makes the king very unhappy so he threatens to throw them all into a fire and burn them as an example to anyone else who would get the same idea.
This
is where it gets good; they make a statement to him in two sentences that have
absolutely revolutionized my thinking. I
don’t know about you, but I have a thinking problem. Every time God promises something I start
with the “What if he doesn’t?” stuff. It
really drives me crazy and makes me mad all at the same time. You know what I’m talking about. God says He wants to bless you, or heal you,
or whatever, and we believe for a minute, then we start the how, when, and where
questions. We know we heard from God for
our lives, but we still struggle with doubt.
I
have found that faith is actually the exact opposite of the natural, human
reaction and thought process. In fact,
Jesus said in Matthew 10:39
(NIV) ”Whoever finds his life will lose it, and
whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” In Matthew 19:29 He said, “…the last
will be first and the first last.” In
our world the first are first and the last are, well, last, but Jesus has come
to bring a new kingdom, new thought and a new reality.
So
back to the Hebrew boys and the three things they taught me.
Number
one, they teach us that God can do it. v. 17a - If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to
save us from it… They had no doubt
as to God’s ability to perform. In order
to truly walk in faith you have to know that He can do anything. You have to believe He is your source, your
supply, your everything. The first thing
I had to learn to walk by faith and not by sight was that God CAN. That simple.
If
I do not believe He is able to that I can not make it to step number two, I
must believe that He will. v.17b-
and he will rescue us from your hand, O
king.
Step
one is knowing He can, step two is believing He will for you. It is easy to believe that God spoke
everything in existence and that He can heal the sick, and that He can provide
all you need according to His riches in glory.
It is another thing entirely to make that personal and believe He will
for you and for me.
The
three amigos were not happy just knowing that God could do something, but they
were facing a very personal need and they believed that He would do it again,
FOR THEM! How much more would we
accomplish, or at least attempt, if we truly believed that God would take care
of us?
That
brings us to the third and final step. Even if He does not come through for us,
we will still not bow, we will not stop, we will still believe and we will not
worship any other God but our God. v.
18- But even if he does not, we want
you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of
gold you have set up.”
This
is the hardest thing for me personally to get my hands around. I know God has called me to do things, I
believe He will, but now God is challenging me to walk with the determination
that even if He does not answer the way I thought He should, I will not stop
serving Him.
My
prayer today for each of us is, “God let me know you can, let me believe you
will, and let me trust you so much that I can say that even you don’t, I will
serve you. This is the true attitude of
faith, and the attitude that can see God do the miraculous in our lives. It will allow us to truly walk without
fear. What is the worst thing that can
happen? Name it, get comfortable with
it, and then get over it. God has not
called us to live in fear, He has called us to walk by faith.
So
we ask, “What happens if he doesn’t come though as you thought He would?” I think we are asking the wrong
questions. The correct question should
be, “What if He does?” Well in the story
we read, it caused the entire nation to serve the true and living God. What about you, what would happen in your
life if He really did do it? Would it
turn your home, your job, your finances, or your relationships upside
down? What do you have to lose? Take on the attitude, “I know God CAN, I
believe that He WILL; but even if He doesn’t, I will STILL walk in faith…” and
watch God move in your life.
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