finding satisfaction in the beauty of holiness

You are able to deliver from the fire of affliction!
It’s the declaration of my Lord!
You’re not an image of gold!
You’re the God of Old.
You have made us. Come and save us. We are yours!
But even if you don’t we will burn.

So burn us up in the furnace of your desire.

“Shane and Shane-Burn Us Up”

Here’s something I deal with. I have been taught that if I read my word, I can have an intimate relationship with God and I can know his will in my life. But let’s take a story and apply it to real life for a moment. Shadrack, Meshack, and Abdnego were gonna be tossed into the fire for not worshiping the king. I think we’re all familiar with the story. Put yourself in their place for a moment.

You have faith that God will deliver you from the fire yet if He doesn’t you will burn anyway. No matter the circumstance, you win. But the attitude most people would have is this. Let’s say the fire didn’t consume you yet it did injure you quite terribly. The attitude you would probably have is to be angry with God because you weren’t consumed to be remembered as a martyr and you weren’t saved to be remembered as a miracle.

You were hurt. Spiritually and physically. So how can we truly now God’s will and purpose? Can we? I think we can but it takes getting on a God-level in our life and looking down on the situation rather than looking it at a human level. We will never understand His ways if we continue to look at things on a human level. We HAVE to look at it on a God-level.

So to look again at the situation we have brought up. Maybe you think God’s purpose was to martyr you and you were left a vegetable. You start questioning your faith. You start questioning if you really know God’s will in your life. You start questioning how close you really are to God to really understand what He wants in your life.

It’s just a thought. Because alot of times, I find myself in this very situation where I had faith God was going to do something, be somewhere and take care of situations only to find that God didn’t move the way I thought He would. Did the three guys know that they would be delivered or did they think they would be consumed? Nevertheless, they weren’t about to serve King Nebby!

If we take Romans 8:28 to heart, no matter what happens to us in life, we will overcome. I have come to learn no matter what I take on in life, it shouldn’t be for my glory at all. For I have been bought by the blood of Jesus and I am no longer mine but a bondservant of His. So if I were to be thrown in the fire, may God have the glory if He so chooses to rescue me, and may He have the glory if He so chooses to allow me to burn.

To God be the glory!