There was a season in my marriage where everything in the natural said, this is over.
The patterns hadn’t changed, the evidence stacked up, and fear got really loud. 😟
Not just emotional and overwhelming, but everything also felt urgent.
“Fix this.”
“Do something.”
“Prepare for the worst.”
And underneath it all, the enemy was doing what he does best - encouraging me to interpret my situation through fear.
“This is how it ends.”
“You might as well quit now.”
“You’re a fool for holding on.”
But somewhere under all those loud accusations and taunting threats, there was something quieter I couldn’t shake:
God was asking me to stand… right there.
Not after things improved. Not once I had clarity.
Just stand right in the middle of the fire and HOLD THE LINE.
If you know my story, you know that the demise of my marriage was what truly turned my heart to God. And in that season, I read the Bible – like, truly read the Bible, for the first time in my 20+ years of being a Christian.
So when I read the book of Daniel, I was SHOOK at how the entire book was full of vivid imagery of ACTUAL battle. Sure, I knew the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego because I’d spent enough time in Sunday School all my life – but I had totally missed the literal spiritual war that is presented in the pages of this book. It’s like the church took the “nice” story of God saving the Hebrew boys from the fiery furnace but left out the really crazy part about an angel coming to Daniel and telling him that he would have come sooner but, “sorry dude, I was literally warring a demon prince and it took me a bit to get out of it…”!!!!!
But I digress.
For the sake of today’s letter, I want to talk about the Hebrew boys and the furnace.
When faced with the decision to either:
A) bow and worship a false god, or,
B) die a fiery death,
they responded with one of the most epic mic drops in the Bible:
If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
(Daniel 3:17–18, NKJV)
That line—“but even if he does not”—is what I call “Furnace-Level Faith” 🔥
