Daily Devotional
Word of the Day
The Rest in Conflict
Pastor Scott
Monday, August 02, 2004
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"If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king."
(Daniel 3:17)
On a Christian program I was listening to, the teacher was talking about the ministry of the Body of Christ--every member having the same care one for another, the ability to pray for and lift up the hands of the people around you and meet those needs. That all sounds good, doesn't it? Then he said, "But if that still doesn't meet the need, maybe they should go for professional help." He had all the right jargon and scriptural references, but if the Word doesn't work, go for real help to the professionals! In this case they meant psychologists or psychiatrists. We have the wisdom of God and the promises of God. The problem is that we lose our rest because we are such an instant fix generation. We have not learned that the trying of our faith works patience. You do not need the solution as badly as you need the patience. The rest of God is the ability to rest and know that what God has promised He will perform.
What have you done to build your trust in God? What are you doing in the minor things to prepare your heart to believe God? What are you doing in making the choice to refuse the king's dainties--the easy method, the world's wisdom--to be proclaimed ten times wiser than what they produce?
Are you ready to go to war, or are you just laying low? I don't mean going out and looking for trouble. We need to serve God and go about our business. But what will you do when the decree comes to worship the image? What will you do when the decree comes forbidding you to pray? Will you throw the windows open as Daniel, pray as you always have and face the lions?
The three Hebrew children were called to face the rage and fury of the most powerful man on earth. "Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" (Dan. 3:15). That was the wrong move to make! Pharaoh made it, Nebuchadnezzar made it, and the devil still makes it today. Do you see yourself or the enemy as the grasshopper? Their land belongs to us. You believe that only when you are at rest and your mind has been renewed. The Hebrew children speak, not arrogantly or presumptuously, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king" (Dan. 3:16-17). Do you believe that today? In this world that we live do you believe that God is able to promote you without defiling yourself with the world's methods? Do you believe that God is able to preserve you? Do you believe that you can boldly proclaim that the God that answers by fire (taking on Baal in his own turf) is God? The rest is in conflict. The rest is known in the midst of the tempest of the sea. The rest is the awareness of God's presence and promises when we are facing the furnace or the lion's den. We are absolutely confident that victory is not gauged by the temporal, secular or mundane but by the eternal.