Choose This Day.

Our beloved Brother Mark Ng, currently serving YWAM, reminded me about aligning my life to serve only 1 God. The story in Daniel 3 is familiar, yet I forgot the significance of the lesson taught there.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego had this unshakeble faith. Just like the heroes of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11, they stood steadfast without the assurance that they would survive the King's wrath. They were willing to go through the fire, and their faith was proven to be unshakeble & changed an entire nation's allegience (Daniel 3:28-29).

Lemuel Yee, from Canaan Church, came for the youth service and told us to no longer hop on one foot. The text was taken from 1 King 18, highlighting the showdown between Elijah & the prophets of Ba'al. The people of Israel showed up too, and Elijah gave a call...

' "How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, then follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." but the people answered him not a word.'

Have we become a people who waver back and forth between Jesus & the other idols in our lives? Are we like the people of Israel in 1 King 18, awaiting for the outcome of the fight... Awaiting to see if God will deliver us from a certain situation before choosing to live a life of obedience towards Him? What if God does not deliver? What if God does not heal? Would we still choose to follow?

It was much more convenient for the 3 teenagers to just bow down, to submit to the waves of demands that come our way. It's safer to accept things as they are, and simply follow the crowd. After all, everyone's doing it. Why bother making the extra effort to initiate change and right the wrong now? Why risk stability? Why break the silence & risk being unpopular?

Elijah made his stand. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego made theirs. They found it necessary to stand strong, to speak out loud, to suffer, to be laughed at, to risk it all; all for what's true & good. I pray that we all will find our reasons to do likewise in this time.