Today’s Bible Verse
If we are thrown into the flaming furnace, our God is able to deliver us; and he will deliver us out of your hand, Your Majesty. 18 But if he doesn’t, please understand, sir, that even then we will never under any circumstance serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have erected.
Daniel 3:17-18 (TLB)
Take a Stand
Life is full of choices. What kind of car do I want? What school do I want my kids to go to? Where do want I to raise my family? Choices are even better when it comes with options. Honda or Toyota? Public school or private school? Hawaii or California?
Choices can easily turn into pressure when those options are removed, and your choice no longer becomes your choice. When the only options left are conviction or compromise, what is someone to do?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were three young Hebrew boys (teenagers), who were taken captive along with the Israelites when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered Jerusalem 600 years before Christ came. They were in a nation that denied God and worshipped idols. Even their own nation, the Israelites, abandoned their God, the God of Abraham, and worshipped the Babylonian gods.
When King Nebuchadnezzar built a golden calf, he mandated everyone to bow and worship the golden image when they heard the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery in symphony with all kinds of music. If they did not, they would be thrown into the fiery furnace.
I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like much of an option to me—deny your God or die? The teenager’s response shows true conviction and unwavering faith!!
When they refused to bow and worship the golden calf, they were brought before the king and they said:
If we are thrown into the flaming furnace, our God is able to deliver us; and he will deliver us out of your hand, Your Majesty. But if he doesn’t, please understand, sir, that even then we will never under any circumstance serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have erected. Daniel 3:17-18 TLB
Did you catch that? “But if He doesn’t…we will never, under any circumstance, serve your gods.”
God will heal me from sickness and disease…but even if He doesn’t, I will not bow down.
God will restore my marriage…but even if He doesn’t, I will not bow down.
God will bring my kids home…but even if He doesn’t, I will not bow down.
God will protect my job…but even if He doesn’t, I will not bow down.
When the devil cannot lure us in by temptation, he will lure us in by fear. However, we are the Body of Christ. We have not come to bow; we have come to conquer.
King Nebuchadnezzar was so enraged by their response, he ordered his servants to turn up the heat seven times hotter. It was so hot that it burned and killed the servants that were near the flames. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were tied up and thrown into the fiery furnace, the only thing that burned up were the ropes that bound them.
When the King looked to the fire, he saw four men, not three. “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”
King Nebuchadnezzar called them out of the fire and spoke:
Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own God! Therefore, I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap; because there is no other God who can deliver like this. (Daniel 3:28-29 NKJV)
(Samantha DeCorte)
Change My Story
Satan has kept you living a small and contained life. Fear has pushed you too far, and it’s time to rise up with the boldness of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and rebuke and take authority over those demonic chains.
Things may be heating up in your life—the loss of a loved one, custody battles, sickness, offense. You took a stand for God, but things just got worse. You find yourself being bound with ropes of confusion, anxiety, fear, staring at a fire that has only intensified seven times worse. A fire like you’ve never seen before.
The miracle is not outside of the fire; the miracle is in the fire, and the only thing that will burn, are the ropes of doubt and unbelief. Don’t be in fear. When the devil turns up the heat, God does too, and when you come out of the fire, promotion and victory will be at hand.
Today’s Declaration
Lord, today I chose to take a stand against fear and compromise to worship other gods. I pray for those who are persecuting me, that through my Christian convictions, as I’m in the fire, they will see you, Jesus. They will deny their gods and worship You. Whether I’m in the fire or outside the fire, Your Name will be magnified, Jesus, because my miracle is in the fire.
Today’s Bible Reading
- Old Testament: Isaiah 1-2; Proverbs 18
- New Testament: Luke 20:27-40; Hebrews 1:1-9
