Daniel 3:13-18

It is our great privilege to serve a God of wisdom, power, and ability who is actively working in the events of history and in the individual lives of men, even as He did in days of old. We are promised that He will continue to work in this manner as long as time shall last because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Some may doubt His power and wisdom, but Scripture gives unnumbered witnesses that our God can work in the lives of men, changing, empowering, and guiding them into the stature of mighty men of God. If you have any shred of doubt that God can do anything with your life, will you consider how God has worked in the lives of others?

• God is able to save
  • Mary Magdalene, a woman possessed by seven demons
  • Saul of Tarsus, a possible murderer
  • Samaritan woman and Jacob’s well

Many a person has said, “I have gone too far away from God; he cannot help me now.” Consider the people mentioned above who ventured far from God. He reached them in their time of need. The Lord reached out with His mighty power and touched their lives, saving them from their transgressions.

• God is able to protect
  • Why was God with these men in the furnace, protecting them?
    • They would not compromise themselves with the King’s meat
    • They would not worship false gods
    • Because they kept faith with God
  • Their strong confession
    • It was not a bargaining session

When a man’s ways please the Lord, even his enemies will be at peace with him. (Proverbs 16:7)

• God is able to keep
  • Job in his trials was kept by the power of God
  • The Lord’s promise covers even the experience of passing through judgment

One of the great fears that face many people in choosing to walk with Christ is that, once they decide to walk with Christ, they will not be able to keep on in the Christian life.

Jesus made this promise to us (John 16:33): “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Jesus asserts that we cannot expect to be exempt from trouble, but that we can appropriate His victory to our experience.

I want to remind you of the confidence that these three young men had in our God. They said, “Our God is able to deliver us out of the fiery furnace, and we believe He will deliver us. But even if His choice should be to let us endure the furnace as martyrs, we will not submit to your demands.”