FAITH CAPSULE: Demonstrating love for God can possibly be to engage a very unpopular stand.

Daniel 3

Claiming love for God is easier said than done. Claiming love for God and not having identity of His love makes one to be a sounding brass. Love for God is commitment it is not convenience. Deuteronomy 6:5 demands, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” To love God is to fear God. The fear of God is encased in the knowledge of God. How can one who hardly spends time in the word understand and gain the knowledge of God? Ones who do not know God cannot possibly love God. Loving, serving, or worshiping God goes way beyond Sunday gatherings, memorization of Bible verses, answering to titles, and being active in the church. Loving God can sometimes be provocative. Demonstrating love for God can possibly be to engage a very unpopular stand in any area of life. The three friends of Daniel’s love for God was provocation to the highest authority. Their love for God provoked Nebuchadnezzar when they refused to serve his god as a result, “…Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated.” (Daniel 3:19)
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego loved the Lord God with all their hearts, with all their souls, and with all their strength. The love for God in them caused them to bluntly refuse to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s gold image. As a result of their love for God, they were threatened with death, by a burning fiery furnace. In response to the threat, “…Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.””(Daniel 3:16-18) In your love for the Lord, can you determine if you have stepped on the enemy’s toe or crossed a line that could generate a burning furnace for your destruction? Friends of Daniel’s provocation called for a fiery furnace, “Therefore, because the king’s command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego.” (Daniel 3:22) God did not leave Daniel’s three friends alone in the furnace of fire. He was with them to deliver and preserve them for His glory.

Prayer for today: Whatever is set to offset God’s plan in your life, God in His goodness, and mercy, will turn it against the set-up agent.