Choose Today Whom You Will Serve
Daniel 3:16-18
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 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."
Joshua 24:14-15
"So honor the LORD and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD alone.
But if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live?
But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD."
I have a connection to the three men mentioned in the verses from Daniel. It is because of the fire into which they were thrown. The image of fire has been pretty potent for me in the past 6 months or so. I have felt as if I were being refined and prepared for something – purified by fire. If you have not read the rest of the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, I urge you to do so. The ending is quite amazing! They, though, are amazing to me. Their faith was so strong and so deep that they risked being thrown into a fiery oven rather than confess another God. This oven was huge – big enough to hold the three men. And the fire was so hot they would have been incinerated almost instantly. They knew that! They as much as asked for it!
They believed their God – the
I AM of my recent postings – would do 1 of 2 things: keep them from burning up and so use them as signs of the one true God’s power and might; or allow them to burn up and go to heaven to be with their God. Either way, they win! They were ready to honor their God that much. They refused to bow down to any other god. That’s the kind of faith I can only hope to have before I die!
The message is the same in Joshua. Serve the one true God. Serve only Him. If you don’t choose God, then you choose something else. Did I share the words to a song I hear often? “Everybody’s worshipping something, I choose you.” And it’s true. We put so many things before God, in place of God, in spite of God, don’t we? Jobs. Friends. Money. Status. You fill in the blank for yourself. I don’t know about you, but I get within about 10 feet of the open door to that furnace, and start to rethink my decision. I commit myself over and over again to serve my God, and then life happens.
My prayer today is that you go with me to the open door of God’s refining fire. And that you take that one last step into the flames. He promises us we will not be burned up!
Mary
