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“The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from
the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they
were to enter the king’s service. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself
with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission
not to defile himself this way.” Daniel 1:5, 8 (NIV)
17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we
serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us[a] from Your
Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty,
that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Daniel 3:17-18 (NIV)
I
recently heard a friend preach a sermon in a series on Daniel. This particular
sermon dealt with his success in the surroundings of the court of Babylon. He
and three of his friends were taken into the court to become workers in the
court of Nebuchadnezzar.
There
was an issue of the food that the king had them eat. Daniel knew this food had
been presented to idols. This was forbidden in Daniel’s Hebrew belief. He asked
for vegetables and water. When he met opposition, He asked that he hand his
friends be allowed to do this diet for 10 days as a test and then have the guard
compare how the four of them appear against the others who were being
‘trained.’ Daniel and his friends won the test.
What
amazed me was the point my friend made. Her statement was to the effect of:
“Daniel and his friends were successful because they were obedient to God.”
Then in
Sunday school, our teacher told us that a pastor once told him that we have two
legs on which we stand—trust and obey. They go hand in hand but first we have
to trust God in order to obey Him.
Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel’s three friends trusted God when the king told
them of their outcome for not bowing down to his image of gold. They didn’t
flinch; they said even if God didn’t deliver them from the fiery furnace, they
would still honor their God by not bowing down to an image.
How do
we in the 21st Century trust and then obey God? Do we study His Word, seeking
answers to our needs? Or do we sit and focus on our problems? (I’m going to let
you in on a secret. I used to do this, myself.) We all, me included, need to
learn to have sharing our hurts and problems with God as our “plan ‘A’”, our
frontline strategy, rather than our “plan ‘Z’”, our last resort. May God
forgive us as we humbly seek His favor for neglecting these very basic building
blocks in developing a right relationship with Him.
It is a lifelong strategy, dear sister, to learn to trust and obey, for once we've learned it in area A, we get tested in G or K areas. But the rewards are so peaceful and fun. It's worth the work!
ReplyDeleteJen: It is worth the work. Those rewards are noteworthy. This morning my visitation partner and I did visitation. We saw people in three different settings, An assisted living facility, a second assisted living facility with an independent living area, and a nursing home. The man (97 yrs old) told us he'd like us to come eat with him one day. We are going next Wednesday. I had heard he appreciated our coming to see him. This made my day. All because we chose to obey the Lord.
DeleteI think we'd save ourselves a lot of troubles if we heeded those words: trust and obey.
ReplyDeleteSusan: A pastor's wife who was also my Sunday school teacher once said that the world would be a lot different if we sought God's will and acted by what He said. You are right when you say we could save ourselves a lot of trouble. Blessings to you and yours.
DeleteGood questions, all. How obedient are we really? I need to think on this more. Thank you for this reminder, Cecelia. :)
ReplyDeleteKaren: Your are welcome. We all should practice obedience more. Blessings to you and yours;
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