King Nebuchadnezzar took Daniel’s interpretation of the dream way too far. Recall Daniel 2:37-38, “You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.” Well, it went straight to the king’s head, and he built a gold statue of himself that was 90 feet tall! Then he wanted everyone to bow down and worship the monstrosity.
The story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is one of my favorite Bible stories. It displays the glory of God and His power over the laws of nature and over the will of man. I love the testimony of faith the three young Hebrews voiced in verses 16-18! “We do not need to defend ourselves . . ., the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods.” They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the God of heaven had complete power to save them from the fiery furnace. However, they were willing to serve Him even if He chose not to save them from pain and death.
God did choose to save them, and I believe He answered their prayers because it was an opportunity for God to be glorified in their lives. I try to follow their example when I pray about difficult decisions. “Lord, I firmly believe that you have all the power to work in my circumstances. However, if you choose not to work in my favor, I will still love and serve you.” When in your life have you been able to demonstrate that type of faith in God? I would love to hear your stories!
You changed the pink to green! That was a shock, I thought I got on the wrong site for a second. Way to keep us on our toes!!
ReplyDeleteOk, who are the satraps and the prefects? I should probably study that for myself, but it's so much easier if someone just tell me.
:-)
Your question of "When in your life have you been able to demonstrate that type of faith in God?" Wow, that's a hard one! I hope I've had that much faith in God to say that even if you throw me in the fire, I will trust the Lord to deliver me, but I'm not sure I have. But I think we better get that much faith ready and hold to it. You never know when you are going to be faced with choosing God or the world's way. I pray that I will always stand up for my faith in Him, but I think of all the times I didn't say something that I should've to show my faith in Him. I think it's a minute to minute choice. What are we willing to choose, God or the easy road??? I want to always choose God, but do I?? Well, today is always a new day to make the right choices!! Thank you, Lord, for always being there every time we decide to come back to You and choose You instead of the wrong choice!
I will share briefly how God amazed me this week. I have been struggling with my son choosing to live with his father all the way in Indiana. It has been so hard to choose to trust God, that He has a plan for all of this. I was very angry the other day with God, cuz after all He can give me what I want and I want Him to make my son choose to come back to me! Hmmmm, that sounds like a spoiled little brat, huh?! So, I'm standing there having my pitty party with God and telling Him how He should just fix this and guess what? Yep, that's right, He told me all right. He said to me, "My heart also breaks completely when one of my children don't choose me." He knows exactly what I've been feeling. He knows!! But He gives us choices and we can either fight Him over situations or we can give them over to Him and allow Him to work HIS plan out!! What choice are you going to make today? Will you choose His plan?? Will you get out of the way so He can work? Will you stand up for Him today? Will we make the right choice?? He tells us that His way is always what's for our best!! Let's choose to trust HIM!!!!!!!! Whew, does anyone out there say Amen? Have a great day choosing GOD, our Father, our comforter, our encourager, our stength, our helper, our SAVIOR, the only Ture GOD and Thank you He is not made out of gold!!!!
Dana~ when my dad got so sick in December I had to put his health in God's hand and leave it. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I knew I had to trust God and continue in faith.
ReplyDeleteNancy
Some of us ladies went to Angela Thomas conference this weekend. She is just awesome! She talked a lot about choosing God and then trusting Him. 3 things that I went away from there with were: 1) I must always choose Him in every circumstance, every moment, every trial, every second. 2) I need to make more fun at home for my children. and 3) I need to start putting up my Christmas tree again. I haven't put a tree up since my divorce 8 years now and I didn't think about it how that has probably affected my children until Angela talked about this also. I love how God uses other people to speak to our hearts at just the right moment that we need to hear it or are ready to hear it!! Praise HIM!!
ReplyDeleteAccording to the online dictionary, satraps were governors of a province in Persia, and prefects were chief magistrates.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your Amazing God story! I love all the ways God shows Himself to us. The list of names you wrote about are all the ways you have come to know Him personally. I also know Him as my provider, my joy, my solid rock. When God shows up in our lives we experience Him face-to-face, and we come to know another facet of His character. Way cool!
I am really glad you girls had a great trip to the Angela Thomas conference. I enjoyed seeing photos on Amy's Facebook page. I love that you are all following hard after God!!