Daniel Ch. 3

Another great day! Had the opportunity to give some guitar lessons to my friend Jessi, drink some milkshakes with my buds Ant and Kinley, and study a good bit of physics. Tomorrow my Aunt Susan is coming to pick me up and take me up to Atlanta to spend time with my family=].

I had a lesson in patience today as well. When I checked my account, there was a transaction for $140.00 for some mouse rugs? No idea where it came from and after an hour of dialogue over the phone it was all worked out. Good news!

Now for some thoughts on Daniel chapter 3:

For whatever reason Nebuchadnezzar orders the whole kingdom to bow down to this large gold statue of himself. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendago, however, want nothing to do with such worship. Am I the only one who is wondering where Daniel is during this story? So anyways the "astrologers" (probably some of the same people that Daniel saved in the last chapter) catch on and order the king (order the king?) to order them to be thrown into the furnace. Nebuchadnezzar, being the nice guy that he is, gives the trio one last chance before turning up the furnace 7 times hotter than normal and roasting them. Now it is their turn to make the choice, which leads us into my thought for today:

Waiting upon the Lord.

Read S, M, and A's reply: "King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us it...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." What do they decide to do? Wait upon the Lord. Whenever we are faced with a crucial decision, this is always the best choice. So what does this look like? Here are the two crucial steps I see:

1. Do not try to defend yourself.
Defending ourselves is always our first instinct. Any time we are put on the spot, maybe we have made a mistake and got caught or been falsely accused, we want to explain ourselves. Explain why it is not fair, how others do not understand; and maybe we are right. Surely S, M, and A were "justified" in not bowing down to the idol of gold. But they did not try to defend themselves, they knew they were honoring God and let their actions speak for themselves.

2. Wait with expectancy and not expectations.
This is huge! Often times when I think about waiting on God, I think about Him doing a specific act in His own timing. God will give me a girlfriend in His timing. God will heal me of this disease in His timing. God will give me a job in His timing. We put our to-do list in God's agenda. No! That is not how God works at all. What did S, M, and A say? Our God is able to deliver us. Not our God will deliver us, He is able. They even lay out how what will happen if God does not. They will still praise Him! Their hope is in the Author, not the outcome. They have expectancy that God will do what is best for them, with no expectations of what will happen. Waiting on the Lord. It's what we are called to do each and every day!

Have a great weekend and as always, stay blessed and highly favored!