even if

A few weeks ago a friend had a link on their Facebook to a song that I clicked on. It quickly became a favourite and has been stuck in my head since.

"Even If" by Kutless



Sometimes life is not what we planned for or hoped for. Things happen that we prayed wouldn't happen. Or things don't happen that we prayed would happen. Those are times when our faith can be tested. Do we believe and follow God anyway? Or do we turn away?

The words to the chorus of this song are definitely incredible to think about and declare in our own lives.

Even if the healing doesn't come

And life falls apart

And dreams are still undone

You are God, You are good

Forever Faithful One

Even if the healing

Even if the healing doesn't come

Those words cover most of what could happen that would test our faith - healing that we and others have prayed for doesn't come, life in general just seems to be falling apart, or our dreams are not coming true the way we thought they would. In the midst of all that, can we declare that God is good and faithful, based on what we know to be true from His Word?

the importance of our names

The last couple of months have meant a lot of time spent in the book of Daniel learning lessons from the life of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. There are a lot of lessons to learn from these young men and the way they chose to live in a foreign culture. But, the other day I found myself reflecting on how important it was that in Daniel 1 we read of one of the first things when they are carried off into captivity in Babylon their names are changed by the King of Babylon.

Daniel and his friends has names that spoke of the God of Israel - of Who He was. One of the first things, King Nebuchadnezzar did was change their names to reflect the gods of the Babylonians. Another sign of the attempt to completely assimilate the Israelites into the new culture surrounding them. An attempt to take away their identity as people of God (as the Israelites were).

It makes me think about how important the names other people call me and that I call myself are. I'm not talking so much about our given names, but more of the names that get used to identify ourselves based on our appearance or what we do. These names can be good and helpful. Or they can be destructive and keep us from doing what we are really able to and called to do. Either way, they have an impact on how we live and how we think of ourselves.

Sometimes I wonder if the names we have for ourselves are negative and defeating more often than we really want to admit. Or maybe we just tend to believe those ones easier, so they're the ones that stick. And they're the ones that we believe are true. It just seems like they are the ones that describe us best. And when we get caught up in them, we seem to be stuck and unable to move beyond those descriptions.

When I think about it, this seems to be Satan's specialty, If he can get us to believe the negative, defeating names about ourselves over anything else, he can keep us from doing what God has for us to do. He may use situations or other people in our lives to tell us that his names for us are what describe us over anything else. Satan works to get us to believe that our names are: failure, loser, ugly, not worth loving, screw up, unforgivable, and many others. If he can get us to believe those things, he has us stuck where he wants us - living in defeat.

But, can I tell you the truth? Those are not your names! God has very different names for us. Names that set us free to live life to the full. Names like: beautiful, lovable, forgiven, chosen, special. Those are names that we need to learn to believe. They are names that will change our lives for the better.

It's not always easy to change the names we believe we have been given in our minds. When we've been caught up in believing the negative, defeating names, trying to think of ourselves differently can seem impossible. But it's not! Well, maybe if we try to do it by our own strength it will be impossible, but we don't have to change our thinking on our own. We can ask God to help us and we can immerse ourselves in what His Word says about us. In fact, that is the way we begin to believe God's names for us. We have to immerse ourselves in His truth, so that the old lies that wallpaper our minds can be torn down and new wallpaper with God's truth can be put up in it's place.

{I've had this post sitting in my drafts for a while now. I really wasn't sure how to finish it. I'm still not sure, but I felt that it was time post it anyways, so it's up without an ending that I would have liked to have.}

tested by fire

I've been part of a study on the book of Daniel since the beginning of January. It has been good to spend time in a book I don't read very often, and to take another look at a couple of stories from it that I thought I knew well. I grew up in the church and heard the story of Daniel and the Lion's Den and of The Fiery Furnace many times, but usually a pretty tamed down version compared to what those situations would have been like for Daniel and his friends. The same overall lessons could be taught based on the understanding that a child has, but the reality of what the fiery furnace and the lion's den would have been like was not touched on in much detail.

Because of that, the stories challenged me again when I studied them this time. Taking the time to think about what it would have been like to be making your stand with roar of a fiery furnace behind you - a fire so hot that the soldiers who threw them in the furnace died (Daniel 3:22). That is not something to take lightly. Realizing that detail made me think twice about the stand that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego made. Or noticing the detail that the lions in the den that Daniel was thrown into were actually hungry. Daniel wasn't spared because the lions weren't hungry. He was spared because God shut the mouths of the lions. Those who were thrown in the lions den after Daniel was pulled out were devoured immediately (Daniel 6:24).

For Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego they chose to stand for God even when they weren't sure they would survive that. They were tested by fire and they chose to trust God. In Daniel 3:16-18 Shadrach, Mesheach, and Abednego put it this way:
¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 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. 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.”
They trusted their God was able to deliver them - whether that deliverance came on earth or in the form of being ushered into God's presence. And their trust in God was tested. They were thrown in the fiery furnace, but they survived it.

As a part of our study, we talked about how there are three ways a situation of being tested by fire can happen: (these are taken from Beth Moore's study on Daniel - Session 3):

1. We can be delivered from the fire.
2. We can be delivered through the fire.
3. We can be delivered by the fire into eternity.

When I read those I definitely know which option I would prefer. If God would deliver me from the fire that would be fine with me. I'd rather not go through those kinds of things. But, when I look back on my life I know I've grown the most when God has chosen to deliver me through the fire - those times when I have had to walk through the hard time, but He has walked with me through it.

It may not be what we wish for in our human nature, but having a faith in God that is tested by fire  will bring us growth. And because we don't have to walk alone, when we're tested by fire we will be able to go through it. God walks with us through that.