The Key to a Faith That Can Be Trusted

Just like Nebuchadnezzar, we can be blown away by what God does in the fire. In the story of Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar looks into the furnace and sees something he never expected. He threw three men in, bound and condemned. But as he watches, the ropes have burned away, the men are walking freely in a furnace so hot it killed the soldiers who threw them in, and there is a fourth person walking with them. The presence of Almighty God showed up in the middle of the flames.

And that is the same promise extended to you. Whatever trial you are facing, whatever you are walking through right now, there is a God in heaven who is able to deliver you. But even if He doesn't, the question remains: will you have the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Their declaration was clear. "Our God is able to deliver us." They refused to bow to anything their culture demanded of them. And even if God chose not to deliver them, their faith rested in His outcome, not their own.

The Fire Is Not God's Absence

The fire you currently sit in, the one you are enduring right now, is not evidence of God's lack of presence. It is quite the contrary. It is an invitation for you to experience His presence in the midst of the fire. Why? According to First Peter, so that He can gain glory and praise through your faithfulness and endurance.

I remember sitting in my office earlier this week on Monday morning. We do a roundtable talk about our sermon topic for the upcoming week. Jesse Peters was at the table, and he said, "What would it look like if all it took for our culture to change was for God's people to be willing to go into the furnace?"

I have contemplated that for several days now. What would it look like for us to be more willing to walk through trials, knowing that the fire is where we have our most intimate connection with the person of God, because He meets us in it? Sure, it comes with forces on the outside that bring real stress and pressure. But God's invitation is that He will be with you and meet you in it.

When You Walk Through the Fire

The prophet Isaiah wrote in chapter 43, verses 2-3, "When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned." Whether this prophet was writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit forward to the story of Daniel and his friends or not, this image is not foreign to the pages of Scripture. Notice the language. He does not say, "If you go through fire, I will save you and get you out of it." He says, when you walk through the fire, it will not harm you.

Go back to Daniel 3:27 and look at it. The fire did not touch them. Not a hair on their heads was singed. Their clothing was not scorched, and they did not even smell of smoke.

Think of it this way. What if running from all of the trials, the furnaces, and the fires is actually you and me running from God's invitation into His presence? What if the trial was an invitation?

A well-known author once said, "A faith that cannot be tested cannot be trusted."

Where Are You Standing Today?

So on a practical level, what is it that you are currently facing that you would put in the category of a trial or fire? Is your marriage falling apart, on the brink of divorce? Are there things being said about you because of your faith in your workplace, and you are struggling to be bold in the midst of other people? Maybe you are facing some sort of crisis in your church family or your extended family. You are being squeezed from multiple angles, cannot seem to find a way out, and do not know what to do next.

Every one of those trials, every bit of that fire, could be something you are running from. There is a tendency in all of us to say, "I do not want this. I do not want anything to do with it. I am going to run in the other direction. I am going to pray that God takes me out of the situation."

But what if those trials are God's invitation to you? What if the trial is the opportunity for you to shine the light of Jesus Christ? What if the goal is not your outcome, but His fame, His worship, and His glory? It is why you were created. You were created by God, for God. If that is true, then everything you go through, both in the good and in the bad, is not meant for you to experience your own comfortable, happy life. Paul says, "For me to live is Christ. For me to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). Everything we do is pointed to the person of Christ. Hands raised high. Full surrender. This is our God.

Made to Bear His Image

Even in the midst of trial, you can know that your God is able to deliver you. But even if He does not, this culture cannot have your heart. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego understood what it meant to stand.

You were not created to build an image. You were made to bear the image of Christ. And when you go through the fire, not if, you are not in there to be burned up. You are in there to shine the light of Jesus.