Impending Doom

Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

He spends time on every “insignificant” detail and so even when I don’t understand I know the script is right. However, recently I found myself in a predicament that though I didn't understand seemed to even contradict what God said. I wriggled and struggled many nights trying to find the sense in it all. God left me to squirm a bit. Then he pointed something out to me, I felt something was wrong because the situation was daily getting worse and leading me to what I felt was impending doom.

There was no doubt the matter would not end well if God didn't act now…this wouldn't be an inconvenience this to me was going to be the worst imaginable thing and there would be no coming back from it. Anxiety kept me up many nights, as each day that ended brought me closer to my ultimate fear.

Faith in God is the only way I make sense of my life. What happens, the people God makes cross my path, the challenges he carefully curates (which I sometimes feel will kill me).

One morning, some infamous Bible stories came flooding one after the other. The Israelites standing before the Red Sea, The Israelites on the banks of the flooded Jordan river, Daniel and the Lion’s Den, The three Hebrew boys and the fiery furnace and Jesus on His way to the Cross. What did these stories have in common? A few things actually.

Obedience to God brought them to trouble.

It is funny how we often believe that once we obey God there should be an immediate reward. That obedience to God makes us entitled to material things, husbands, wives, children, jobs and other desires of the heart.

It is for us to know the true state of our hearts and how we really see Him. It is not about condemnation and punishment. God had already told the Israelites that they would get on the other side of the river. Was His Word powerful enough for them to step into a flooded raging river with their children? Is the roaring river more intimidating? Who will you believe God or your circumstance?

We also feel that obedience leads us to paradise, nice cool air-conditioned spaces with good lighting and food.

What we miss is that obedience to God leads us to greater intimacy with Him. Closeness to God requires faith,

They remained.

Faith that makes us ignore the body’s instincts to save itself but rather give it all up because God brought us here and we would not want to be anywhere else. We cannot be close to someone we don’t trust.

Think what it must have felt like to see a furnace and walk in it? To see a wide-open ocean and move toward it…To see a cross for you to in the most humiliating way and possess the ability to save yourself and yet you put one foot before the other and walk towards your doom.

Even Jesus saw the doom coming and asked God to remove it if possible.

God allows these situations to test the level of commitment and ascertain the depth of trust. The test is not simply a matter of pass or fail but rather for us to know where we really stand with God. How far we are allowing Him to come to us.

The feelings that he battled were real. But God. You see none of these stories would have existed if the persons ran, took a detour or assumed that God would never allow this and conjured a human plan.

They stayed put and continued forward. This decision is why we have these great stories that strengthen our faith and why we have salvation.

None of them knew at that moment the value of their decision and the lives that depended on their faithfulness and neither do you. They trusted God against all human instincts and put their fears and anxieties second to doing what God said and stood for.

Something happens when we remain, when we decide to make our greatest desires second to the love of God, when we beat our flesh into submission because of our faith in God.

It's the decision that screams “ Above all else God, I want you.” Like the Hebrew boys as they walked to their death. They knew God could save them, but they were ok if He chose not to.

For them, let it be known that they did not compromise to serve another god. Their whole life was worth making this statement. Is yours? Or do you have greater things to live for?

TONI-ANN MILLEN, Columnist

After we decide what we believe we act it out. These stories are the perfect examples of walking towards your doom for the sake of Christ.

To be willing to give it all up, knowing that the reward though unseen is unfathomably great. It doesn’t happen with the click of a switch nor is it a reflex reaction. Many of us start the walk and then detour in the middle or just before the end.

The highway of faith is filled with many exits. God wants us to make the sacrifice of our own will. He will not force us. If we really want intimacy with God, If we really want to experience His magnificence we will be able to put down earthly things and desires that mean the world to us.

The walk of faith, like Jesus heading to the cross, can be long and is also riddled with triggers. Things that push you to compromise, give up or believe the worst about God. Satan knows what is at the end of a faith walk but he also knows that humans selfpreserve and so he will make every effort to discourage and derail. To equip ourselves to walk in faith regardless of what we see ahead of us to place the Word before us and keep stepping.