Crazy in Faith

I know. The title is weird. Read through the Bible and if you are keen enough, trust me, you will meet them; the crazy in faith. Those who would hear God call and just go. Drop everything and just go. Quite adorable I think. 

I will not use too many examples. Some few months ago, I did this unforgettable devotional on YouVersion called A tale of Ridiculous Faith. It was talking about Elisha. His story is found in the book of 2 Kings. Honestly, the things Elisha did were ridiculous. The kind of faith he manifested was on another level. Totally sold out he was. You can easily tell that he knew, even if he lost everything, he had everything to gain in the Lord. He was so confident in the God he served. No doubt about that.

Then those three guys in Babylon; Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. I would never want to grow accustomed to their story (it is found in Daniel 3). The king, Nebuchadnezzar, had made an image which he required everyone to bow down to. So when the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp and all kinds of music were sounded, everyone else bowed down; except those three guys. The king is informed of the divergent three. He summons them and threatens to throw them into the furnace if they do not conform. So here goes why I put them in the ‘Crazy in Faith’ category: how they responded to the king in verse 16-18.

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 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. 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 were saying this to the king, and not just any king; the great king Nebuchadnezzar. He was so furious that he ordered the furnace to be pumped seven more times. The soldiers who took the three to the furnace apparently died; the flame was that intense. Then guess what? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego get in and out of the megasuperblazing furnace not even smelling of smoke. Yes. The Lord came through for them.

I am always marveling at those three. I keep thinking about those words they said to the king (not sure who among them said it but they most certainly were together in it all). The part that strikes me most is verse 18(a), “But even if he does not...” This phrase tells me something profound. I learn that all Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego wanted to do was to fulfill the will of God. The consequences did not shake their stand. What the king would do, what the other people were saying and more gross, the blazing furnace; all these did not cause them to denounce their God. Now this is what I call being totally sold out. It is my prayer every day; to just do the will of God and leave the rest to Him.

In order to be sure that we are fulfilling the will of God, we need to be sensitive to His voice. How do we even get to that place of hearing His voice? Intimacy. We need to be so intimate with God that nothing He wills for us to do passes us by. God can speak to us through various avenues: His word, our situations, our convictions, quiet time in prayer, a lack or presence of peace in us, the people around us and we cannot even limit Him to these. He can use anything. After all, He is all powerful. Isn’t He?

Another thing that we always need to remember is that we are a royal priesthood. 1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” With such a powerful and honourable title on us, how do we stoop so low? So low that we find it okay to just do things (especially the obviously sinful things) because everyone else around us is doing them? Standing out of the crowd when everyone else was bowing down was not an easy thing. Allowing my imagination to be active, am almost sure Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had some chills of fear running down their spines; but they did not give in. Guys in the crowd must have called out to them asking what foolishness they were doing (or something like that). Others maybe even tried to drag them down to bow but they still stood. Firm. How did they hack? Simple. They knew who they were. They knew the God they served.

It becomes easy to trust someone when you know him or her; when you are sure about the state of his or her heart towards you. There is this powerful quote that my beloved Joseph loves to remind me of every so often, “God is too good to be unkind, too wise to be mistaken. So when you don’t see His plan, when you can’t trace His hand, trust His Heart.” His way of doing things is far more powerful and of more significance than your mind could ever perceive. So trust Him.

People talk of being crazy in love, right? How about we all strive to be Crazy in Faith and trust this Mighty God we serve?