Am I your God? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A question I imagine our Heavenly Father asking me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A question fitting and requires an honest answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This world is not our home. But…we are here. We are here fulfilling the purpose of glorifying our Heavenly Father. During that journey though, there will be times we may feel the pressure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There will be times we may feel we are being pressured into a fiery furnace because we don\u2019t bow down to the idols surrounding us. Sound familiar? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Think about Daniel 3 and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Three men felt the pressure. Three men stood up to the test and went into the fiery furnace because they would not bow down to the idol or false god King Nebuchadnezzar constructed. Was everyone else doing it? Yes. These three men though said \u201cNo\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chapter 5 of 1 John leaves us with what some may see as an unusual charge\u2014\u201cMy children, keep yourselves safe from false gods!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u202d\u202d1 John\u202c \u202d5:21\u202c \u202d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Would you bow down to a statue? Probably not. But what about bowing down to being all about sports. Work. Hobbies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Are those all of those \u201cbad\u201d? No. But, have they become your god?<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a parent of kids playing sports, we are bombarded with this idea and thought right now. At 9\/10, if you don\u2019t play all the time, you are failing your child (or that is what the world says). <\/p>\n\n\n\n What about pleasing self or being all about me? Pride. Making yourself look better. Money. Status. Power. Popularity. Politics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What exactly is replacing God in your life? <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tim Keller<\/p>\n\n\n\n If it is is more important to you than God, it is an idol. If it takes more of your time than God, it is your idol. If it is all you can think about and want to live for other than God, it is an idol. If it makes you question the absolute truth and your belief in God\u2019s Word, it is an idol. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, get rid of it. Will you feel pressure? Absolutely. It will be uncomfortable and we will face earthly trials. We are promised that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But–you have an out. You have the best OUT POSSIBLE. You have God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the midst of the fire in Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood their ground. They looked past the fire and to our Heavenly Father. After the king turned \u201cred\u201d with anger, he ordered a furnace to be heated SEVEN times hotter than normal, the men to be tied up and fully dressed, and thrown into the blazing furnace. The guards taking them were burned! (Another side lesson here–our actions can hurt others even if they were not the ones \u201cintended\u201d to be on that side of the fire)…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of three men being in the furnace, four were there. One–looking like an angel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n God was with them. He won\u2019t leave you. That is a promise. Believe that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When those boys came out of the fire, their clothes were not singed. Their clothes were not burnt. They did not smell of smoke. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here in our journey, we will be faced with the temptation of looking like the world. We will be tempted with the \u201cfires\u201d of power, wealth, status. We will be tempted to put false gods before God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Will you bow down to those? Will you allow the clothes you wear to be singed with the world? Will you smell like the world\u2019s stench? <\/p>\n\n\n\n The world\u2019s clothes won\u2019t save you. He will. His blood clothes you with grace and mercy. That blood–pure, white as snow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Everything He promises WILL happen. The world will not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Everything He says is true is. The world–not so much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Choose this day whom you will serve\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if I feel the pressure to be like the world, I choose Him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if it is uncomfortable and causes strife, I choose Him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if it changes my \u201cstatus\u201d here on earth and popularity, I choose Him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is ONLY God who can save you from the blazing furnace. Choose Him. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Am I your God? A question I imagine our Heavenly Father asking me. A question fitting and requires an honest answer. This world is not our home. But…we are here. We are here fulfilling the purpose of glorifying our Heavenly Father. During that journey though, there will be times we may feel the pressure. There will be times we may feel we are being pressured into a fiery furnace because we don\u2019t bow down to the idols surrounding us. Sound familiar? Think about Daniel 3 and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Three men felt the pressure. Three men stood up to the test and went into the fiery furnace because they would not bow down to the idol or false god King Nebuchadnezzar constructed. Was everyone else doing it? Yes. These three men though said \u201cNo\u201d. Chapter 5 of 1 John leaves us with what some may see as an unusual charge\u2014\u201cMy children, keep yourselves safe from false gods!\u201d \u202d\u202d1 John\u202c \u202d5:21\u202c \u202d Would you bow down to a statue? Probably not. But what about bowing down to being all about sports. Work. Hobbies. Are those all of those \u201cbad\u201d? No. But, have they become your god? As a parent of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shelteredingrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/IMG_8429.png?fit=973%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1122,"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions\/1122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shelteredingrace.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}