God is amazing. God is good... ALL THE TIME. And ALL THE TIME, God is good.
Friend, we christians are in the battlefield. A few days ago I realized that I was in a "spiritually active war zone" and I was losing the battle. I could not but stop thinking that I had disappointed Jesus, and I could not stop casting blame upon myself for being such a sinful being with almost no shot at redemption. Have you been there? Have you ever just wondered why God even bothers to try and save you when there's barely hope for you? I was there. I was struggling. After all, I am a weak, sinful human uncapable of fully understanding God's overwhelming love for me. Still, realizing I was losing the battle I went to church on Saturday and bent my knees asking for help. By the end of the sermon, God had talked to me and radically changed my spiritual mood.
The sermon started discussing that God is good all the time, but the Pastor admitted that she had not always lived in the flesh the "God is good all the time" way of seeing her surroundings. A family member had gotten disgnosed a mass in her body and they took this person to the oncologist. Afraid as anyone would be, she prayed and hoped that everything was going to be alright... it wasn't. The person was diagnosed with cancer at just 21 years old. Who believes when things are this bad that God is good all the time? She then goes on to explain a fault in our worship attitude.
Most of us, me included, worship and look for God not necessarily for who He is, but because of what we believe He can do for us and in our lives. Unavoidably, when things go south, this way of worshipping turns around and make us cast blame on God, ourselves, or both. When things do not necessarily go our way we tend to fall back and get upset at the situation... we tend to point fingers. Then the Pastor opens the book of Daniel and reads from Daniel chapter 3. Here we find the story of Nebuchadnezzar and the three God-fearing friends: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. Nebuchadnezzar, being king in Babylon, decides to erect a massive golden statue and make everyone bow down in worship to the statue. Of course, fearing and serving God, these 3 friends decide not to do so. City officials notice their disrespect and bring them in front of the king who, under threat of death, tells them to bow.
Here is how that conversation went:
Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? Now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made, good! But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?”
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
Did you see that? Things got real bad quick for those 3 friends. There seemed to be no way out... either they bowed and saved themselves, or they refuse and be cast into the fiery furnace. Here's the thing, these 3 friends knew the gospel story like not many of us do. These 3 friends knew God like not many of us do. They knew that God ultimately has the power to do as He knows best suit His purposes, and they fell back on the Savior's promises and trusted that whatever happened next, was God's will. They could have boldly stated that God was going to deliver them for taking a stand for Him, but they recognized that God is God, God is love, God will always be who He says He is, and that God's answers also, sometimes, entails saying: "No". They knew God could deliver them, "BUT IF NOT", they would still honor Him.
How different all of our lives would be if only we would trust God in this way? How different it would have been for me that day to trust Him in this way. Friend, let our prayer today be: "God, let me trust you for who you are. Let me know you like I've never known you, and help my faith in you grow like never before. I want to trust you not because I know what you can do for me, but because of what you already did for me. Amen."
Until next one,
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