Week 10: Day 1

Intro: Hey guys, and welcome to Orbit, it’s great to have you with us today, if I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you, well my name is Robin and I am pumped to be sharing with you this week. Just as we’re at the beginning of the week, I thought I’d just quickly let you know a little bit about who I am.

As I said, my name is Robin, I was born and raised in Devon and I now live in East London. I was a carpenter for 9 years and am now in my final year in training to become a vicar in the Church of England! I know what you’re thinking a carpenter, who’s now working for the church, but I have to let you know, that’s unfortunately where the likeness to Jesus stops.

But anyway, this week we will be exploring some of the comforts and challenges found within the book of Daniel… So let’s crack on…

Bible: Today's reading comes from Daniel 3: 17-18

The context of what we are just about to read is that king Nebuchadnezzar has passed this new law meaning that everybody had to bow down and worship this Gold statue, this golden idle that the king had made. And anyone who didn’t worship it, will be burnt to death. And there’s these guys called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who are like… not a chance. And so they are brought before the king and this is what they say.

“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.”

Thoughts: Now, each day I’ll be asking you a question and today I want to ask you… how is your faith?

If there’s one thing we can learn from Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, it’s what it looks like to have strong faith. If I’m honest I’m not 100% sure what I’d do if I was faced with the choice between a burning furnace or just simply bowing down to this statue to keep this king happy. But what I’m learning as I prepared this is, and as I journey through faith, is how often it is that I limit God in my faith, how often it is that I limit God in my prayers.

I recently moved house and I can’t help but see my prayers being the same as me, asking the removal company – who had a 20-tonne removal lorry and a team of strong men ready to move our house – “hey could you transport this chair for us, and I’ll sort out a way of moving everything else…”

Now don’t hear me wrong; they can move the chair, they could do a fantastic job of moving the chair… but they are capable of doing so much more. They are capable of moving the entire house. But with my request, I am limiting them to just a chair.

And so often my faith and my prayers are like that, asking the smallest things of the biggest God.

And here Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are literally putting their lives on the line because their faith in God in so big. And actually, what’s even more inspiring (and I think it’s’ one of the most awesome lines in the Bible – and if not that then it’s definitely one of the sassiest lines!) is that they say “even if God does not save us, we want you to know, that we will not serve your gods.”

These guys have their priorities right. They believe God can save them, because he is the only true God. It’s not that he is the Lord most high because he can save us. But that, first and ultimately, he is the Lord most high and therefore he can save us, but even if he doesn’t, he is still the Lord most high, and that will never change… And isn’t that a great takeaway for us today.

Challenge: Each day on Orbit we give you a challenge to help put this passage into practice, and today, firstly let’s make the conscious decision to let our faith and prayers be as big as the God we pray to, and to also therefore remember that to have a strong faith, it can mean that even if God doesn’t answer our prayers in the way we expect, that we will still hold onto the belief that, he is still a God that cares for us, a God that loves us and a God that saves us.

Prayer: So let’s pray together. And try not to just listen to my prayer, but I encourage you to pray along with me.

Heavenly Father, you are good, and in your goodness, you meet with us. And today as we try to be bold in our faith, and to be brave with our prayers, will you show us more about the certainty of faith. and as we do so, will you shape me, change me, form me, will you shape me, change me, form me, will you shape me, change me, form me, to become more like you Jesus. Amen

Outro: That's it for today's Orbit. Thanks so much for joining us - we'll be back with another reflection tomorrow.