When the fiery furnace feels a little too ferocious

Last week, I talked all about trials and how to better overcome them. I've been thinking a lot about that lately, and this week, have come to the realization that each of us in our lives will face "Liberty Jails"or even "fiery furnaces".

In the Bible in the book of Daniel, we read about King Nebuchadnezzar creating a golden image and commanding all to pray to and worship it. Three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, refuse, and the King commands that they be cast into a fiery furnace. You might remember a little bit about this furnace. The king was so upset that he ordered the furnace to be heated seven times more than it was already. In fact, it was so hot that the soldiers who took these three men and cast them in the furnace were killed just by standing that close to it!

The rest of the story says, "Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, came forth of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God."

Can you imagine what it must have felt like to be Shadrach, Meshach, or Abed-nego and to hear the king order his men to heat the furnace up 7 times hotter than it was!? They never feared, they never backed down, and they never lost faith in the Savior and His always available help. In fact, earlier in the story, these three men said to the king, "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

It's pretty evident that these three men had so much faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they knew that God would be able to deliver them from the furnace that they were facing. Elder Matthew L. Carpenter recently taught in General Conference, "Mortal infirmities can refine us and deepen our reliance upon God. But when we allow Christ to be involved, He will always strengthen us spiritually so we can have greater capacity to endure our burdens." Infirmities, furnaces, trials, addictions, etc. can all be endured and overcome through the redeeming power of the Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement. That doesn't always mean He WILL do that, but we must have the faith that he CAN do that.

That's where this statement comes in: but if not. If Christ decided not to be with these three men, they still would have believed in Him and His power. They made that very clear as well before being cast in. Christ was literally there in the furnace with them! President M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles has taught, "Thankfully, Christ is always near, waiting and willing to help us when we pray for help and are willing to repent and come unto Him."

Sometimes our furnaces burn us. Sometimes they leave scars that are hard or even impossible to forget. Sometimes, the furnace is so hot that we throw our arms up in despair and cry out, "I'm done!" Sometimes Christ will deliver us from the furnace and other times He will not. Can we still trust that He is all-powerful and all-knowing, even when part of God's plan for us does not include deliverance? That's a hard question to ask, and an even harder question to answer. I believe that in a final day in the future, every wrong will be righted, every tear will be compensated, and every question or doubt will be answered with clarity. I believe that God has a plan for me, and that part of my role in that plan is having the faith that He knows what is best for me. And I also believe that even if He doesn't save me from the furnace, He is always walking right there beside me in it.