Author: imikemedia

I’ve never directed a movie, but if I were writing a script for the story of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego, I believe this would be the perfect place for the rescue scene.

These guys just declared they weren’t going to bow down even if it meant they had to die.

I can see it now – the music begins to swell, the screen beings to transition from darkness to light, and all of a sudden some angels bust onto the scene and tear of the place.

But it didn’t happen that way.

God didn’t come swooping in.

No white horse.

No heroic rescue.

No action-adventure scene.

Nope!

In fact, quite the opposite takes place.

Daniel 3:19 says, “Nebuchadnezzar was so furious with Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego that his face became distorted with rage. He commanded that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than usual.”

Isn’t that what religion teaches?

As long as we do everything just right, nothing bad will ever happen to us!

But Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego had done all the right things – they had stood their ground and believed that God was greater than what they were going through – and now they were on their way to a furnace that was seven times hotter than it was before.

Some of us may have to walk into a furnace that is seven times hotter than we expected before we come out of our trial.

It may get seven times hotter at work tomorrow.

It may get seven times hotter in your difficult marriage.

It may get seven times hotter in your relationship with your parents or your children.

[The king] ordered some of the strongest men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. so they tied them up and threw them into the furnace, fully dressed in their pants, turbans, robes, and other garments. And because the king, in his anger, had demanded such a hot fire in the furnace, the flames killed the soldiers as they threw the three men in. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, securely tied, fell into the roaring flames. Daniel 3:20-23

They’d done everything right, and God still allowed them to go into the furnace.

What about God being holy?

What about God being good?

What about God being with them?

What about God being in control?

Just because we follow Jesus, it doesn’t mean we escape stressful and anxiety-filled circumstances. Perry Noble, “Letting Go of Control,” Overwhelmed, 76-77.

“GOD LOVES YOU AND I LOVE YOU AND THAT’S THE WAY IT’S GONNA BE!” – MIKE

THE SYMBOL OF an anchor is powerful because of what it stands for: hope.

The book of Hebrews speaks of “this hope we have an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Hebrews 6:19).

That’s a game changer.

A boat that is anchored can be battered, but it won’t be moved.

Because of Jesus, we have hope.

And because of hope, even in the midst of the worst storms of this life, we have an anchor for our souls.

Hope is a powerful thing…

I’ve heard that in Air Force survival training courses, instructors teach something called the “Rule of Threes”: In a survival situation you can last three weeks without food, three days without water, three hours without shelter in extreme conditions, and three minutes without air.

But you can’t make it three seconds without hope.

The most important battle is the one you fight within, in your mind and heart, to not give up.

If you give up hope, you won’t have the motivation to do anything else in a critical situation.

That’s a fact backed up by medical science.

Dr. Meg Meeker observed, “Physicians can often tell the moment a terminally ill patient gives up hope. Death comes very quickly.” Levi Lusko – “There’s No Such Thing As a Wireless Anchor,” THROUGH THE LENS OF A LION, pp.96-97

“GOD LOVES YOU AND I LOVE YOU AND THAT’S THE WAY IT’S GONNA BE!” – MIKE