Integrity Triumphs Under Fire

“Then [Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego] were tied up in their trousers, their coats, their caps and their other clothes, and were cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. For this reason, because the king’s command was urgent and the furnace had been made extremely hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. But these three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, fell into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire still tied up” (Daniel 3:21-23).

When God doesn’t deliver you from a trial, He refines you through the trial.

When facing excommunication at the Diet of Worms, Martin Luther wrote to the Elector Frederick, “You ask me what I shall do if I am called by the emperor. I will go down if I am too sick to stand on my feet. If Caesar calls me, God calls me. If violence is used, as well it may be, I commend my cause to God. He lives and reigns who saved the three youths from the fiery furnace of the king of Babylon, and if He will not save me, my head is worth nothing compared with Christ. This is no time to think of safety. I must take care that the gospel is not brought into contempt by our fear to confess and seal our teaching with our blood.”
Luther was willing to risk even death for the sake of Christ. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego before him, he valued integrity above his own life, and in his loneliest hour drew encouragement from their experience.
Often we pray to avoid trials when God wants to use them for our greater good. But trials test the genuineness of our faith and purge us of sin and shallowness like a refiner’s fire purges gold. The process may be painful, but the result is more precious than the purest gold (1 Peter 1:7).

Suggestions for Prayer
Pray that you might face each trial with wisdom, patience, and a clear sense of the Lord’s presence.
For Further Study
Read Acts 20:22-24.

What was the apostle Paul’s perspective on the persecution that awaited him in Jerusalem?

What was his ultimate goal?