"A Fireside Kinda Faith"

Sometimes life takes us to places we don't really care to be.  Even as Christians we sometimes find our feet in the fire and our faith on the floor.  We cry, we hurt, we can't eat, we don't want to speak, we can't sleep.  And depending on the size of the flames, we may even find it hard to pray.  Have you never been there before?  Well come.  Stand here next to me on the corner of Fireside Drive and Faith Avenue.  I have something I want to share with you . . . 

[Please Read Daniel 3]

Some time ago, many of you were wondering about my daily posts, which had simply said, "~ · · · Don't call. I will not answer. Please just continue to pray for me, and He will hear . . . Thank you."  Well no it wasn't a contest or some kind of a "chain post" that others would be posting.  I really was in need of your prayer support.   Even as I was writing this, there may have been someone somewhere who was making my furnace "seven times hotter".  A "furnace" that I really didn't care to walk into.  Christian or not, I really don't carry the desire to prove my faith in that fashion.  I've gone through hell before (see my Note "Trusted With Trouble"), and I distinctly remember telling God, "Thank You for bringing me through that.  Should you decide to trust me with trouble again, please don't."  And yet, there I was again . . .

"(13) Then Nebuchadnezzar became very angry and called for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. And they were brought to the king. (14) Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the object of gold that I have set up? (15) Now if you are ready to get down on your knees and worship the object I have made when you hear the sound of the horns and harps and all kinds of music, very well. But if you will not worship, you will be thrown at once into the fire. And what god is able to save you from my hands?”  [Daniel 3: 13-15]

As I've mentioned before, in times like these, and based on experiences I've had in the past, I found it easy- well maybe not easy, but routine- to pray the words of David in Psalm 42, or the words of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3.  But something was different about that furnace.  That furnace had a thermostat that appeared to have been melted and made useless by the flames.  And the blame was partly mine.  And from the very start, it had already felt seven times hotter.  A bit too hot for comfort as I continued to pray, and tried to keep my faith. 

There it is.  Did you catch that?  It's the "trying to keep my faith" that brought me to you today.

"(16) Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer to this question. (17) If we are thrown into the fire, our God Whom we serve is able to save us from it. And He will save us from your hand, O king. (18) But even if He does not . . .”  [Daniel 3:16-18a]

I've come to realize that in my past experiences I've been able to pray the words of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego because I could see and believe that God was gonna bring me through.  I didn't know the WHEN, but I could almost see the HOW He was gonna do it.  But what happens to a Christian's faith when "even if He does not" begins to look more and more like "maybe He WILL not"?  In reading the rest of Daniel 3, you'll see that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were indeed cast into the fiery furnace.  You'll also see that they walked back out of the furnace without even the smell of smoke on them.  But they didn't know they would be walking back out.  Sure, they believed in a God Who could save them.  But they had a "fireside kinda faith" that said, "But even if He does not . . .".  And that's what I prayed for- that "fireside kinda faith".  I thought I had it at the time.  But I was still human enough to be just not too sure.  (In any case, you'll understand that I was still praying that I wouldn't have to find out!) 

So as I asked you to stand there with me on the corner of Fireside Drive and Faith Avenue, I'm asking you to support others who may be going through some kinda furnace.  They don't know if He'll save them from the furnace, or if He'll send them through it.  But they need prayer warriors to pray their strength in the Lord.  They need prayer warriors to strengthen their "fireside kinda faith".  That faith that will stand firm.  Because today, someone's "even if He does not" looks more and more like "maybe He WILL not".  And their tears flow over their feet in the fire, and their faith on the floor . . . 

(vsm 2014)