{"id":920,"date":"2019-06-13T02:59:26","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T02:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=920"},"modified":"2020-04-17T00:04:47","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T00:04:47","slug":"4-powerful-lessons-can-learn-shadrach-meshach-abednego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/06\/4-powerful-lessons-can-learn-shadrach-meshach-abednego.html","title":{"rendered":"4 Powerful Lessons We Can Learn From Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"unsplash-logoCharlie
Charlie Ellis<\/span><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you read Daniel 3<\/a>, you’ll discover an amazing real-life story of three men who courageously spoke truth to power even at the threat of their own lives. In a previous post I share four harmful ways we respond to trials in our lives<\/a>. From the positive standpoint, what can we learn from the lives of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/b>1. Your <\/b><\/span>excellence<\/b><\/span> gives you a platform to speak <\/b><\/span>truth<\/b><\/span> to power. <\/b><\/span>Don\u2019t walk past the fact that these three men spent the best years of their lives serving a ruler that had killed their families and enslaved their people. They probably didn\u2019t agree with his policies nor his values nor even the direction he was taking the country. In spite of all that, they chose to honor God and serve with excellence, wherever they found themselves, and their excellence gave them the platform to even have an audience to speak before the king. How you excel at where you work, the dedication and excellence you put into your career, either builds or erodes a platform from which you can tell others about God.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/b>2. Trials are not always a sign of God\u2019s <\/b><\/span>absence<\/b><\/span> or <\/b><\/span>punishment<\/b><\/span>.<\/b><\/span> That\u2019s a popular lie that has permeated parts of Christianity today, that if God loves you he would never allow you to go through difficult times, and if you are, it must mean that you did something wrong or you don\u2019t have enough faith. When they were threatened with literal fire, it wasn\u2019t because they had done something wrong or because God had turned away and forgot to keep his hand on the wheel. God had bigger plans, plans that they weren\u2019t party to.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b>Many times when we walk through the fire we immediately assume the worst. Is God punishing you? Is God absent? That\u2019s where our minds will always go, but many times our trials are part of a bigger plan that we can\u2019t see and it has nothing to do with punishment or abandonment.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/b>3. Sometimes God will choose not to <\/b><\/span>deliver<\/b><\/span> us from the fire so that our <\/b><\/span>testimony<\/b><\/span> through the fire can showcase the glory of God.\u00a0<\/b><\/span>Right now in my daily personal Bible reading I\u2019ve been going through the book of Job, another legend who went through suffering. God allowed Job to suffer, just like He allowed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to suffer so that through their suffering their testimony would showcase the glory of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s so important for us today. When things go wrong and when we go through the fire, we immediately reach out to God for help and relief. So what happens when that relief doesn\u2019t come? What happens when the radiation doesn\u2019t work on the cancer? What happens when the marriage isn\u2019t restored or the prodigal doesn\u2019t come home?<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes life doesn\u2019t have a happy ending, sometimes we don\u2019t get to go riding off into the sunset, sometimes we don\u2019t get to live happily ever after. Sometimes it\u2019s through that pain, through that fire, that the world truly sees what faith in God looks like, not when things are going well for us, but when we\u2019re standing in the midst of the fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/b>4. Instead of asking God to <\/b><\/span>remove<\/b><\/span> us from the fire, start <\/b><\/span>looking for Jesus<\/b><\/span> with us in the fire.\u00a0<\/b><\/span>Whether God delivers you from the fire or not, and he delivered these three, instead of just asking for relief, start looking for Jesus. That\u2019s the beauty behind the song we sang. There was another in the fire, standing next to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in the fire, if you\u2019re walking through trials, know that Jesus is right there with you.\u00a0<\/span>Church, we are called to be the body of Christ, the hands and feet of Jesus. When you see someone walking through the fire, they will see Jesus with them when you choose to be the hands and feet of Jesus and willingly step into the fire with them. That\u2019s why we have to do life together in community.<\/span><\/p>\n

But know this, if you\u2019re in the fire right now, Jesus is right there with you.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you’d like to connect and see more of the content I’m working on, be sure to like my church Facebook page<\/a>. You can also find me on social media: Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you read Daniel 3, you’ll discover an amazing real-life story of three men who courageously spoke truth to power even at the threat of their own lives. In a previous post I share four harmful ways we respond to trials in our lives. From the positive standpoint, what can we learn from the lives…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[403,404,398,402,172,130,401,246],"class_list":["post-920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-next-steps","tag-abednego","tag-character","tag-fire","tag-meshach","tag-old-testament","tag-power","tag-shadrach","tag-truth"],"yoast_head":"\n4 Powerful Lessons We Can Learn From Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"2500 years ago three men spoke truth to power in a way that still inspires and informs us today as believers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/06\/4-powerful-lessons-can-learn-shadrach-meshach-abednego.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"4 Powerful Lessons We Can Learn From Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego - 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Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. 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