More Than Able

by Joyce Sykes
Published November 15, 2007

“I’m sorry I have bad news.” I wonder how many of God’s children have heard those words and wondered what in the world was happening. Some have felt the ground was slowly crumbling beneath their feet. Others have become angry. Still others have withdrawn as if they were a little box turtle.

The report might have been a serious health issue for them selves or maybe a dear loved one. It might have been news of a serious accident or the loss of a loved one. Sometimes it might be a spouse who has decided to call it quits; or perhaps the information concerning a child or grandchild that has gone astray.

Hard times and events come to everyone. Often we feel as Christians that we should be exempt, even though Scripture reveals that ‘rain falls on the just and the unjust.’ Those words assaulted our ears and hearts when our son was just 17 years old and critically injured in an accident that left him paralyzed. We had to draw on our faith and the Lord’s strength as never before.

Through out Scriptures hard times came to the people whose history has been recorded. We see sickness, famine, wars and even death. God’s people were not excluded from those events either. However, we can look at those individuals and the cry of their hearts in praise despite the crisis surrounding them at the moment.

Eve felt the pain from the loss of her son. Job lost everything, his children, his health and his belongings. His friends acted as if he had committed some evil trespass that caused the Lord to bring judgment. Noah listened and obeyed by building the ark even while knowing that only a few would be spared from the coming judgment. David wept at the loss of his best friend Jonathan. The list goes on and on.

Yet I often think about the young three Hebrew men who had been carried away to a foreign land. Far from home, forced to serve the king of the land and yet denied to choice to worship their God Jehovah. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were brought before the king for refusing to worship the golden image. Even when facing death, these three stood straight and true on their convictions. It might not have been ‘politically correct’ but that did not matter to them. They faced the ultimate bad news. “You are going to die, right here and right now.”

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18

Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us! What a beautiful statement. There was not a shadow of doubt, not a single question. Then in the very next breathe, they stand straight and tall and announce for all to see “But if not, we still refuse to serve any other gods.” Nothing was going to shake their faith, no trial, hardship not even death. Their faith remained strong and true.

“Can you trust Me even in this?” the Lord ministered this question deep to my heart several years ago when our son was critically that accident. Whom else could I trust? There was no one and no where else to turn. Although I did not understand, this much I knew I could trust my Lord in even the hardest of time.

Our little world often fills with chaos, with bad and sometimes horrible events happening around us and yet we can still rely on Him to always be there in the midst of our fiery furnaces. May our faith and trust in the Lord we serve be as strong as those three young men who were thrown into the fiery furnace so long ago. Let the cry of our hearts be as those three “My God is more than able to deliver me, but even if He doesn’t I will still serve Him”

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