A family devotional: Desiring God’s will over your own

Our pastor, Ken Werlein, was preaching today on overcoming the storms in your life and he read from Daniel 3.  It is the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

There is a verse or two that really stood out to me this morning and I thought it would make a great family devotional.  We will have this ourselves on Monday, but I wanted to give a heads up to you before Monday.

Here are the verses that I want to focus on (Daniel 3:16-18 MSG):

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, “Your threat means nothing to us. 17 If you throw us in the fire, the God we serve can rescue us from your roaring furnace and anything else you might cook up, O king. 18 But even if he doesn’t, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference, O king. We still wouldn’t serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”

What stands out to me in these verses is that they tell King Nebuchadnezzar that “if” God wants to save us, He can.  The word “if” is important for us to understand when it comes to following God’s will.  What they recognized is that God may not want to save them from the fire, but they chose to not dishonor God anyways.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew they were not allowed to worship any idols, even if it meant their death.  So they did what was right in God’s eyes and didn’t worry about whether or not it would turn out well for them here on earth.

They were God focused and not “fire” focused.

We always need to remember that God’s will is far better than our own.  Sometimes we pray for things to happen, as if God himself told us to pray for them, and then we are hurt or dissapointed when they don’t turn out like we wanted.

This is why, when I pray, I always end my prayers with, “and God, if this is not your will, then please give me the wisdom to see your will because ultimately, Lord, I want your will done in this thing and not my own.”