Faith & Courage

Faith may be defined as a strong belief in God that He is capable of directing and helping us to overcome all our problems and obstacles on life so that we can improve on our spiritual,moral and material status. Faith recognizes the fact that God is omnipotent and therefore, has power that surpasses all other powers in the world. Faith also recognizes that God uses His power to direct and help all those who trust in Him to deliver them from their enemies and overcome problems in order to improve their conditions in life. Consequently, belief in God calls for absolute trust and confidence in God to help solve all our problems through faith. In the Bible, the faith and courage of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are mentioned as well as the faith and power which saw Daniel escape the lion's den. These stories are told in order to make us exercise the same faith,courage and power in God under all circumstances of life.

FAITH AND COURAGE

Courage is the ability to face opposition, persecution or hardship without dear. When faced with any of those situations, fiath in God gives us the courage and boldness to stand firm and confront the enemy. Courage gives us power to be loyal to God and not to give in to the enemy. Thus, the strong faith of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego gave them the courage to overcome the persecution of king Nebuchadnezzar.

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon made a golden image and set it up in the plains of Dura. He then invited all his officers in the province for the dedication of the image. At the dedication, the king issued a decree that, at the sound of music, everybody should be down and worship the golden image, and whosoever failed to do so would be thrown into a burning fiery furnace. As soon as the sound of music was heard, all the officers bowed down and worshipped the image.

At this time, some Chaldeans came and reported to the king that there were three high ranking Jewish officers in the king's service namely Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who had refused to bow down and worship the golden image at the sound of the music. And at his command, the three Jews were brought to him. The king was so angry and then warned them to be obedient to his decree or face the consequences of being thrown into the burning, fiery furnace. The three men were not afraid of the threats of Nebuchadnezzar. They told the king that their God would deliver them from his hands. They said even if their God did not deliver them, they would not serve his gods or his golden image. They would rather prefer to die than be unfaithful to their God, by worshipping other gods.

This made the king angry, he became furious and ordered the 3 men to be bound and thrown into the burning, fiery furnace which was heated seven times more. Then men who cast them into the furnace were burned by the great hear from the furnace. The three men, Shadrach l, Meshach and Abednego did not die in the burning, fiery furnace. The king was surprised. He then asked his officers whether there were not there men cast into the burning fiery furnace for he had instead seen four men, who were not hurt and that the fourth was like a son of the gods.

King Nebuchadnezzar came close and called in the three Jews to come out of the burning fiery furnace which they didn't all the king's officers were surprised that no harm had been done to the three Jews. The king then praised the God of the Jews who had delivered his people who trusted in Him. After this, the king made s decree that anyone who spoke against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego should be destroyed. As a reward for their faith and courage, King Nebuchadnezzar promoted the three Jewish officers.

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