Walking With Christ

Daniel 3:17-18 (17)If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. (18)But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.(ESV)

The fire was heated seven times hotter than it was supposed to be. The fire was intended to destroy Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It didn’t. It didn’t destroy them, it changed them. The fire didn’t destroy their faith. It solidified it.

These guys literally walked through the fire. They came out without a single singe mark or even any odor saying that they had even been near a fire. The faith of these three changed the course of two nations that day.

Remember that we will all walk through our own fires. These fires are not meant to destroy us but rather refine us into something more pure and good. When we come out the other side of the fire there will be others who see what came out of the fire and never know about the impurities that were lost in the fire.

Other scriptures:
Zechariah 13:9 And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, “They are my people”; and they will say, “The Lord is my God.”(ESV)

Malachi 3:2-3 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.(ESV)

Isaiah 48:10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.(ESV)

1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.(ESV)

1 Corinthians 3:13-15 Each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.(ESV)