40 Days of Prayer – Day 15

SCS StudentDevotional Blog

Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” 

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”  Daniel 3:14-18

In this passage, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego have a difficult decision to make; they could either choose ease, popularity, and life… or death. The king demanded that they bow down to him and his statue, an act which the friends knew was wrong in the eyes of God. It would have been easy to do it, and they had a lot to lose. They were administrators in the king’s court. They had good food, good clothes, and power in the most powerful empire during that time. But they chose to remain faithful to God alone. They were willing to give up everything in life so that they could say that God was number one in their life.

The three friends could have worshiped the king, which would have shown that their allegiance was to earthly things rather than God, but they had the courage and the trust to remain faithful, to stand in front of the king, and to say God will save us and we trust Him even if He chooses not to save us. Be ready for situations when your faith and allegiance to God are tested. Look for ways to trust God rather than taking the easy choice and ignoring God’s call in your life.

Junior Braeden Miller

Prayer Focus:

  • SCS Student Success & Leadership:  Michelle Fetveit
  • Praise God for his perfect will (Matthew 6:10) Give thanks that nothing occurs in life that God does not allow to happen.
  • 2 Timothy 1:6-11:  For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

    Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher.