Day 26

What God is there who can deliver you out of my hands?...O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Daniel 3:15-18

Dale suggested three questions that Daniel chapter 3 poses:

• Does God have all power? Yes!
  
• Is God able to deliver believers from all problems and trials? Yes!
  
• Does God deliver believers from all troubles and trials? No…Why?
  

We looked at 1 Peter 1:3-9 and we talked about experiencing persecution. Dale said that it is necessary for us to face difficulties and trials because this is how we learn to lean into God and He develops our faith. We do best when we respond to troubles as Daniel and his friends did in Daniel chapter 2: prayer and fasting. We contend for God to deliver us, but we determine to love and obey Him even if He does not deliver us from our difficulties.

I certainly have not faced martyrdom or even real persecution for my faith. But, I have experienced difficult life circumstances, loss that feels painful and hope that is deferred, seemingly indefinitely. In that moment, I have wrestled with whether or not God is really good. I have been tempted to redefine what "good" means in order to make sense of my experience. I confess that I have accused God of being mean to me, on more than one occasion, because I was experiencing great disappointment and hurt over how He was shepherding me and leading my life.

I think that these small troubles and trials that we face are extremely important because they reveal what is in our hearts and minds. God didn't make me think He was mean by how He was treating me. He allowed my circumstance to reveal the lie that was already hiding in my heart. And, in the great and terrible day of the Lord that is fast approaching, we will experience actual persecution and difficulty. If I am believing, in even small ways, that God is mean and not really good because He is not giving me what I want right this second, then what I am going to think about Him when I don't have anything to eat, or everyone I love is put into prison or killed, or I am tortured? How will I stand in that day if I don't practice standing now, in all of the small difficulties that I experience?

I think that God is actually extremely loving and gentle in His leadership in my life. He knows exactly how to lead me, to perfect me and to mature me now so that I will be able to stand and bear witness to the fact that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life in that day. (John 14:6) God knows that I am easily enticed by the current of this world and the instantaneous pleasures of sin that are mine right now, should I pursue them. He is trying to teach me how to go without food, literally, through fasting and to pursue the superior pleasure of loving and knowing Him above every other desire that I find in my heart. God is bringing me into mature love and partnership with Him so that I see Him as the goal of my life rather than as a means to my happiness. In doing this, He is ensuring that my joy will be maximized for all of eternity and that I will not fall away in the days of difficulty that lie ahead. I don't like wrestling with Him, but I would rather practice contending now than be lost later.