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Four Sundays. Four words. Four posts.

Be. Still. And. Know.

Part 1 – ‘Be’: Even when trials and fires come, decide who you are in Him and remain true to that. The Hebrews refused to bow, even when faced with the fiery furnace. ‘Be’ you no matter what.

Part 2- ‘Still’: You’re Still here. When you are tied and bound and there is nothing you can do about your situation, sometimes all you can do is be ‘still’ and look for God in the fire. He always comes.

Part 3- ‘ And’

This could quite possibly be my favorite. Seriously, even looking at the word ‘and’ gets me all tingly inside. Lest you think I am simply hyped up on coffee, we’d better get started!

So, we’ve got these three Hebrews refusing to bow to the king’s golden image. Tied up and thrown into a fire. Hopeless. Helpless. Until God…

Well, this is kind of the ‘and now what’ part of the story, isn’t it? Ok, God, you have appeared in the fire, and now what?

And now what?

I felt that way moving six months after Dave died. Packed up ten giant furniture crates of belongings from the Navy base house in Hawaii. Got on a plane with two little girls and a crazy dog to fly 6000 miles to a new life in Florida. My ID card was stamped ‘widow’. My identity had shifted. God had put a period in our story where I was hoping for a comma and lots of lovely happily ever afters. It was time to step out of the fire into the ‘and now what?’.

Many “ands”

Back at the fiery furnace, the Hebrews heard a voice above the roaring flames. In Daniel 3:27, Nebuchadnezzar yelled for them to, “Come out!” Now the story gets really interesting…as verse 27 lists one ‘and’ after another.

‘And they were walking around.’

‘And they came out.’

‘And the governors and satraps gathered around them amazed’.

‘And not a hair on their head was singed, nor were their garments scorched’.

‘And there was no smell of smoke upon them’.

The ropes that bound them had burned off and they were free to walk around. Now, would you still be walking around in a fire if you were free to leave? Sometimes, I’m afraid, that is exactly what we do, so busy pacing in hopeless circles of self-absorption that we miss the call to get out of the fire! We miss God’s ‘and’ because we are preoccupied with our right now.

When they came out, everyone stared in amazement. They weren’t hurt. They weren’t burned. And they didn’t even smell like smoke! If you’ve ever been around a campfire, you know that smoky smell gets into everything. Your hair, your clothes. You can’t escape it.

But the three Hebrews had no smell of smoke upon them. How is that even possible?

And God

God had brought them through the fire unscathed. And everyone around was astounded. Amazed not just at them, but at the God who had protected them.

And they came out.

And there was no smell of smoke upon them!

This reminds me of another passage in Isaiah.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
Isaiah 43:2 (ESV)

Lord, we love You so. I pray that You would meet them right in the middle of their own fiery trial. May they see You walking around with them in the flames. I pray we are listening to Your voice and that we find our own personal ‘and’ today. The thing that You are calling us to in our ‘and now what’ season. Free us from the things that are paralyzing us from moving forward. May we come out of the fire unscathed and with no smell of smoke upon us; not an object of pity because of our life circumstances, but a shining testimony to Your faithfulness. Amen.

Be. Still. And. Know.

What’s your ‘AND’ today? We’d love to hear about it. And stand with you on your journey in responding to His call. Sometimes it helps to (gulp) tell someone the thing God has been whispering to your heart!