Obey God, regardless (3)

What God commands you to do, He will give you the grace to do. But that doesn’t mean it will be easy. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were ordered by the king to be burned alive for refusing to worship his golden image. Notice their faith confession: (1) “Our God…is able to deliver us” (Daniel 3:17). They never doubted God’s ability. (2) “And he will deliver us” (v. 17). They never doubted God’s willingness. (3) “But if not,…we will not…worship the golden image” (v. 18). They never considered an alternative to obedience! How did their story turn out? “Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished…saying…‘Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?’ They answered and said to the king, ‘True, O king.’ ‘Look!’ he answered, ‘I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God’” (vv. 24-25 NKJV). What happened next? “Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon” (v. 30). You say, “But this is the hardest thing I have ever been asked to do.” When God asks you to do something you don’t want to do or feel you can’t do, He has your best interests in mind. When your children say, “I can’t do this, it’s too hard,” do you change your mind and let them off the hook? No, you insist, because it’s for their good. That’s how God feels about you: “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them” (Deuteronomy 5:29 NIV).