Articles
Standing for the Light
Has there been a time in your life when you were treated differently? For myself, in high school I was mocked and teased because I walked with a swagger and an article for the school paper showed mine and my brother’s open heart surgery scars. Currently, being in a wheelchair brings about a wide variety of different treatments and emotions from the people I come across. Everyone in this world is created uniquely and has different circumstances in life. Thus, every person in this world is going to be treated differently at one point or another in their lives. However, it is not necessarily our differences or the treatment of them that warrants our focused attention, rather it is our response.
In John 15:1, Jesus tells us that the world hated Him long before it has hated us. Since the world knew Jesus before it has known us, the world will know that His followers are supposed to respond to people and situations in a Godly way. The world is going to try to tempt us into reacting in a manner contrary to Jesus’ teachings. Christians are never alone because John 15:26 states that God will bestow His children with the Spirit of truth as their helper. Jesus says in John 14:26, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Paul reminds us that the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22). Rather than react, a Christ follower is supposed to use every moment as an opportunity to show these teachings of Christ.
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah had a teaching opportunity like this in the presence of King Nebuchadnezzar. In Daniel 3 the king had made a golden image of an idol and was summoning various officials to worship the idol to the sound of instruments. Some of the officials pointed out that the Jews were different because they worshipped God and wouldn’t consider bowing down to the idol. Nebuchadnezzar brought Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah in front of the idol to prove if the statement was true. Despite knowing that the denial to bow would result in being cast into a furnace to die, these three men refused to bow.
Any person would probably feel the disheartening pressure to conform after being stripped of their Godly given name and being forced to live as captives in an unfamiliar country—among the king no less. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah’s resolve in the Lord was stronger than any pressure they felt to conform or any fear they had over the furnace. Assurance of faith does not mean there will be an absence of hardships, temptations, or difficult emotions. Rather, it means that you know your God is stronger than all these things. We will be treated differently and face tribulations in the world as children of God. The world will attempt to sway our hearts into thinking that we belong to it and not Heaven. Like Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah though, we can take heart in knowing that we are joined with Jesus who has overcome the world (John 16:33).
