Are you IN the fire?

In Daniel Ch 3--we all know the story of Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego...they refuse to bow down & worship the King because of their love & dedication to God.

The king gets angry, ties them up & throws them in the fire.

Well....I'm sure they were praying hard for God to get them OUT of that fire. It was so HOT, (king ordered it to be heated 7x hotter than usual)  the heat killed the soldiers that were escorting the 3 of them into it.

They are there in that fire...no rescue, the fire doesn't go out, there is no Holy water raining down upon them.

Photo by Robert Brooks, Editing by Kevin Cameron

BUT there IS an angel of the Lord WITH them in the fire. AND they are there, in the middle of it--unscathed. UNTIL...their actual tormentor, the king, calls them out. Their "enemy" calls them out of the fire--because he witnesses what has happened & realizes WHO the real God is. Dan 3:26 Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!" So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire...

In my own life, I've been praying for a 'speedy rescue'....this fire is hot & it's uncomfortable & scary. No 'rescue' has appeared. But I know, that I know, that I KNOW--God is with me.

The other thing is....the 3 men did NOT try to escape. They could have. They could have fought off the guards....weren't their ropes burned up in that fire? They could have WALKED OUT of their own accord. BUT THEY DID NOT. Dan 3:25 He said, "Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods."

They stayed there--RIGHT IN THE FIRE! CUHRAZY if you ask me!!!

They knew their God was going to be glorified & more-so they stayed in that fire until they were instructed to walk out. Actually they did tell the king they would be rescued but if not, they still trusted God: Dan 3:17 "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king." AND Dan 3:18 "But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

Either way--they willingly chose to STAY in the fire. In the end...we see what happened.

If you are in the fire, do not fear. Pray for angels to be near--to feel God near. I know He is. He IS moving, He has not forgotten about you or your situation--whatever it may be.

Be still...even in the fire.
Praise God, even if the rescue is not speedy or what you would have imagined it was going to look like.