Today I was reading in Daniel chapter 3 where three young men were thrown into a fiery furnace for not bowing to the king’s idol as he had commanded. What gives a person this kind of faith? Verses 13-20 point out to us how outraged the king was that these three young men would dare to defy him. He was so angry that he had the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual. Verses 17-18 give us a clue to the depth of their faith. “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.”
As we serve God, read and memorise His Word, we get to know what an awesome God He is! The other day, Joel and I were walking at Waimarama Beach looking for sea glass. We came upon a piece that was still new looking and certainly did nit qualify as “sea glass.” I was going to take it and throw it away. However, Joel said, “If you take it away, how will it become sea glass?” So true!
Is this not the same way that we get this huge faith like these three young Hebrew men had? God uses trials in our life to smooth off all our rough edges and conform us to the image of His Son. We don’t ask Him for trials, but if we cooperate with His purpose, we come to appreciate them as we grow in our faith and trust for our Abba! The more broken we are, the more we recognise our need for Him.
I Peter 1:6-9 says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Let’s cooperate with the “Wave Maker,” as He smooths off our rough edges, so that we can more resemble His Son. Remember, it is in our brokenness, that we better see our need for Jesus. In this way we can rejoice in our brokenness.
Beverley