How do we as Christians live uniquely in a world of conformity? The book of Daniel tells the story of four young Jewish leaders—Daniel and his three friends—who were trying to live out their faith while faced with a Babylonian culture that was incredibly different than theirs and, at times, even hostile. Throughout Anomaly, we’ve seen that when we attempt to be faithful to God, conflict isn’t usually far behind. Sometimes that conflict has the potential to be very costly to us, as it was for Daniel and his friends. This week we’re talking about the kind of faith we need to stay faithful when staying it can be incredibly difficult.
In Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzar builds a golden statue and commands the people of Babylon to worship it. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego believed only God was worthy of their worship so they refused to follow the king’s command.
Read Daniel 3.13–18.
In their response to the king, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego show us a picture of how to stay faithful when faithfulness is tough. They show us what faith is…and also what faith isn’t.
Question: Think about a time in your life when faithfulness was difficult. How did you respond? How do you respond today in similar situations? Is staying faithful in the face of conflict or loss a hard thing to do? Why or why not?
We are prone to two common errors in how we understand faith. The first common error is the “Quantity of Faith” error. This error says that faith is about the amount of confidence we have in the specific outcome that we hope to experience. If we just believe strongly enough that God will bring the outcome we want to see, then what we hope to see will come to pass. The great danger of this view comes when the thing that we’re believing for doesn’t happen, because then we have only our own lack of faith to blame.
When we look at the story of Daniel, we see that Daniel and his friends weren’t 100% confident in the outcome of their situation, and yet they’re still universally regarded as incredible examples of faith in today’s world. They declared that they believed God could save them but also admitted they weren’t sure how it would all go down in the end.
If we subscribe to the belief that faith is about having great confidence in a specific outcome, then we would want to correct Daniel’s friends in their response. We would think that saying “but even if he doesn’t” means we don’t have faith. But the truth is that we can still walk in faith, even when we’re unsure of the outcome. When things don’t turn out like we hoped, we don’t have to live with guilt for not believing enough for our plan to happen.
The second error of faith is about the “Quality of Faith.” This error says that the key to seeing prayers answered is making sure we are asking for the right things with the right posture of heart. If we just pray for what we truly believe are good things and ask with pure motives, then God will answer our prayers.
Now, is it a good thing to pray according to the promises and character of God? Absolutely. Is it a good thing to pray with pure motives? Of course—the Scriptures teach us to do that very thing. In fact, if we pray in that way, our prayers are probably more likely to be answered.
But again, let’s look at Daniel’s example. Daniel’s friends know that God is a deliverer. They know their hope of deliverance is a good and God-honoring hope. Yet even as they carry this quality of faith, they are still unsure of how things will play out. We can have a godly desire for a godly outcome, but that doesn’t always mean we know for sure how each situation will turn out. The night before the cross, Jesus Himself prayed and asked the Father that His life might be spared. This was, no doubt, a good prayer from a good heart. And yet the cross was still His path.
Question: To which error of faith are you most susceptible? How do you practically combat and correct that error into biblical faith?
Biblical faith isn’t just about having the right quality or quantity of faith. Our faith needs to be less about being confident in a certain outcome and more about being confident in a sovereign God. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego knew that God’s care for them extended beyond life on this earth. Sometimes we can be tempted to believe that God’s care for us is only evident when He makes life easy for us, but God’s care is actually the most evident when at the end of our lives.
Read Philippians 1.21–24.
Both Paul and Daniel’s friends had utter confidence in God’s care for them in life or death. This belief enabled them to stay faithful to God even when being faithful wasn’t easy. When we’re in tough situations at work, at school, at home, or anywhere else, we have to entrust our safety to the arms of God.
Read John 10.28–29.
We have to believe that no matter the outcome of our difficult situation, nothing can snatch us out of our good Father’s hand. So how do we pray? One author said it best: “We pray to God for what we think is right, but we trust Him to do what He knows is best.” We can pray boldly for what we hope to see happen while having an even greater confidence in God to work it all out.
Question: How do we cultivate this kind of faith so we can stay faithful when we’re met with times that test our faith?
Daniel’s friends’ faith rested on two core convictions.
1. God is able.
In Daniel 3.17, the three men declare, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it…” They had seen God deliver the nation of Israel many times over the years. They had already seen God deliver them personally in Chapters 1 and 2. Therefore, they had a deep conviction that God was able to care for them no matter the outcome of their situation. On this side of the resurrection, we have even more cause to believe God is able than Daniel and his friends because we saw the Son of God come to Earth and defeat every power setting itself against Him when He rose from the dead.
2. God is good.
In Chapter 1, Daniel and his friends experienced the favor of God when they refused to eat the king’s unholy food and saw God award them great wisdom and stature as a result. In Chapter 2, they experienced God’s favor and goodness when God gave them the interpretation of the king’s dream. Now, in Chapter 3, we see how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walked in faithfulness in the face of great difficulty yet were still not exempted from the fire.
Read Daniel 3.24–27.
Question: Who do you think was the fourth person in the furnace? Read Matthew 13.41–42. What did Jesus do on our behalf to save us from the furnace of hell? What kind of feelings does it evoke when you consider this offer Jesus has given us?
If we can build our faith upon these two convictions—that God is able and God is good—then we will have the kind of faith that Daniel’s friends had. And we can trust that when our moment of testing comes, when remaining faithful might cost us dearly, we will stand strong in faithfulness.
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