Daily Devotional

I've been reading the major prophets for a bit now and I have to say it isn't very cheerful. In fact, it's been very disheartening and bleak and I can hardly wait to get to Daniel to read about the victories when the Lord saves Daniel from the lion and Shadrach, Meschach, and Abed-Nego from the fiery furnace. Now those are exciting and encouraging things to read about!
But as I think about it, Daniel and his friends had some hard things to go through to get to these victories. They were taken from their families by a conquering nation (and who knows what happened to their families) they were enslaved and God asked them to do things that should have killed them. It wasn't until they were obedient to that point of death that the miraculous happened. Although they believed, it wasn't until this point that some of those around them were ready to believe.

As I see our nation becoming so much like Sodom and Gomorrah my instinct is to hide in my nice safe house, my nice safe church, and shut the world out. I would much rather be like Scarlet O'Hara in the movie "Gone With The Wind '' and throw my hair back and say, "I'm just not going to think about that. After all, tomorrow is another day!"

But I know that the Lord wants to save as many as He can before the end comes. So I have to keep pressing outward, asking the Lord to help me come out of hiding. Praying that He will open my eyes each day to who He wants me to pay attention to. What He wants me to be learning about in order to love people the way He loves. How to confront sin and not break the sinner. Truthfully, I have to say it's scary. I don't want to do it wrong and I don't want to be rejected. Fear is definitely a tool Satan uses to hinder my obedience. So I keep asking the Lord to help me each morning as I come to Him. Trusting He'll give me Daniel-like faith when the moments come.

That's where my hope comes from. Besides wanting those in the world to come to an obedient walk with the Lord, I, even more, want those closest and dearest to me to have that. This is the catalyst for my own obedience. And it is how I bear the bleak and hold onto the hope of the victories that lie ahead.

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