A thought or two or three

So I fell off with my blogging. It was going well, I was managing to post once a week. Then summer hit. Blogging wasn't the only thing to fall to the wayside, school has been a major challenge with all of the nice days that we have had! With this beautiful weather it has been great to be able to be outside enjoying God's creation.

Anyhow.

A lot has happened in the last two months. The Israelites were sent to Babylon. Now they came back from Babylon and are rebuilding the temple. Going back through the pages, I just wanted to highlight a couple of things that struck me:

My verse:

"You will keep in perfect peace
all who trust in you,
all whose thoughts are fixed on you!"
Isaiah 26:1-19

A very special friend of mine (that's you kt) gave me this verse on a card a few months ago when I was struggling with worrying. Reading and praying this verse has helped me to leave my worry when I fix my eyes on the Lord. It's still a struggle, but I do feel less anxious than I did six or so months ago. I enjoyed coming across this in the reading. This part of Isaiah had a note that it belonged to a set of prophesies that didn't have a specific connection to any events. So amazing that Isaiah shared these thoughts about our restoration with the Lord. We have these words to enjoy and ponder for our own lives.

Two of my favorite Bible stories happen in the book of Daniel. Maybe Daniel is just one of my favorite books? For me this book shows, not only God's faithfulness to his people, but that through faith all things are possible including being saved from a firey furnace and the mouths of hungry lions.

The story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Daniel 3:1-30) tells about the faith of three men who refused to bow down to the king's statue of himself. In the end they were protected in the furnace that was to be their death. Their faith and God's saving grace helped to soften King Nebuchadnezzar's heart.

Much later, and under a different Babylonian king, Daniel is also punished for his faith (Daniel 6:1-28). Once again a law is passed that all people should worship the king only. So Daniel goes home and prays openingly in front of a window just as he has always done, he is "caught" and subsequently thrown in the lions den. In the den, the Lord sealed the mouths of the lions so that Daniel was safe. This act of faith and God's intervention to save Daniel, also caused the current king, King Darius, to have his heart softened towards God. King Darius sent out messages to his kingdom that the God of Daniel was the true living God.

Great stories. Veggie Tales also has a great version of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (which will also be the names I pick if I were ever to have triplet boys. ha.). I think how often I decide to hide my faith in little things in life, and how these four men had the opportunity to go with the crowd, hide their faith, pretend that everything was ok, but chose not to. They chose the straight and narrow path, the one that I struggle daily to remain on, and were greatly rewarded when faced with great adversity. Now we usually don't throw people in with real lions or fires, but there are definitely many metaphorical punishments for not going with the flow. We can be ostracized or made fun of or ignored. We may offend someone who is in a position of power. Or we may be surprised with what happens when we do not deny our faith and proudly claim Jesus as Savior and Lord. I know I struggle with being open about my faith, but may I know that Him who offers perfect peace, will not leave or foresake me when I step out in faith and acknowledge him before others.