Into the Furnace!

How often are God's ways different than ours!  We are always looking and praying to avoid difficulties while God intends we endure them!  I don't see things the way God sees them from the onset.  The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego has taught me much.  These Hebrew men stood resolutely in the face of certain death believing God could deliver them out of King Nebuchadnezzar's hands.  When the music played they refused to bow before the image he set up, and he commanded the furnace be heated seven times hotter than usual so their death would be certain.

If I had been in their shoes, I suppose I would have prayed the wrong things from the start.  I would have prayed something like, "God, help us not to be caught when we refuse to bow down."  Well, they were caught.  Then, "LORD, please keep us out of that fiery furnace."  They were thrown into the furnace.  Only THEN would I have thought to pray as clothes caught fire, "God, please use this situation for your glory."  It was only once inside the furnace that God's glory could be revealed.  God used that furnace to refine the faith of the Hebrew men and all the children of God since.  When I would have been dodging that furnace, God wanted to meet His children INSIDE of it!

Inside the fiery trial is not only where we will have the closest, sweetest fellowship with Jesus, but that is where the eyes of others will be opened to His reality.  It was amazing that the Hebrew men walked around unharmed in the fire, and a fourth man appeared with them likened unto the Son of God!  It was then that King Nebuchadnezzar called them out of the furnace as servants of the Most High God!  Even in the middle of that raging furnace the men were completely unharmed and had to be invited out.  But I can assure you they were as profoundly affected as Nebuchadnezzar - perhaps not with shock and amazement, but a deep strengthening of their faith.

God does not refine His children in a vacuum, but out in the open (even in the furnace!) so others may see.  The furnace is not a wonderful place, but God makes wonderful use of it.  Though we may squirm at the thought of trials and difficulties, it is in that place where God has us right where He wants us.  This way we trust in Him alone, and all the world will know there IS a God who is real, mighty, and good.  It is in the furnace His Word is proven and our faith strengthened.  Our God is able to deliver us from the hottest furnace and willing to meet us in the most severe trial.  Will we trust Him?