Many of us have been through an experience in life that was too difficult, painful, hurting and heartbreaking, where at times you thought you or wished you were in a deep dream and that it soon will come to and end and it never ended soon enough. We have also been in a hard place where we felt like we were being suffocated by our circumstances and life conditions, and we cried for help like a drowning person gasping for air. In such seasons you wonder why God’s help does not come sooner, you question your faith in God, and you search your heart and have no answer to what and why you are going through it. Then you come out of it and you wonder how you survived in that hard place for years, months or days. You should have given up, but you did not; you should have quit, but you did not. What kept you sane and strong is the sustaining power of God. God is a keeper, and He passionately sustains you so you can learn and know His power in the process of what you go through.
There is no experience in life that serves no purpose if the Lord allows it. He will not bring you out of it prematurely, because his purposes in what you are going through must be fulfilled. So he provides his power to sustain you. You will always know when this power is in operation in your trial; although painful or hard, there is a sense of peace and calm that comes over you. There are times in your fire that you will feel the heat turned up and the torment multiplied a thousand times over, but it only lasts as long as you can handle and reach out for his sustaining power. It is in this place of powerlessness, hopelessness that you will feel his presence when you get your eyes off your pain and focus on the goodness and power of God. He loves you so much that no power of darkness will pluck you out of his hands.
In the book of Daniel, the four Jewish youths were always sustained by the power of God. In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were determined to worship the only One true God, and were reported to the king as a result. They did not ask for deliverance; their help and deliverance came as they responded by faith in their hardship. They knew that God was able to rescue them at his own appointed time. Their responsibility was to trust God through the duration of their trials. Courageously, they stood before the king as he pressured them to deny their God to avoid being thrown into the fiery furnace. They said, “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 3:16-18, ESV) Furious with pride and rage, Nebuchadnezzar ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than normal. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were bound and cast into the flames. The fiery blast was so hot it killed the soldiers who had escorted them. (Daniel 3: 19-22).
The fourth man did not appear till the furnace was heated seven times (Daniel 3:25). Today if you feel like you are reaching a breaking point, then know that your deliver is drawing near. You are coming out to that horrible situation, not looking like you have been through anything. At times you might come out with scars; the scars just serve as a reminder of God’s sustaining power in your life. I am reminded that God will heal our wounds, but scars remain.
By Eva. Isabella Mwango
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