From Control To Peace

From Control to Peace

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”

Daniel 3:16-18

I’ve found that the more things we try to control, the more anxiety we feel and the less peace we experience. How do we get out of the control trap? How can we experience quietness and peace in the midst of crisis? A look at the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3 gives us a model.

The three young Israelite men were about to be thrown into a fiery furnace because they refused to bow to the Babylonian idols. They faced a crisis as severe as anything we might ever encounter in life. And if God didn’t come and deliver them, they knew they would surely die. Our verses today express their response: They committed themselves to God and prayed in faith, believing that God would answer and yet trusting him completely with their situation. They were saying, in essence, “Even if you don’t deliver us, Lord, we are still going to trust you!”

These young men knew something that we need to remember: We are not in control (and it may seem that evil forces in the world are), but someone is: the Lord God Almighty who created the earth we inhabit and the heavens and is still in charge of it all, regardless of how things may look. The situation you are in didn’t take God by surprise, and there will be a time when he brings you through it, as he uses it to shape and mold you to be more like Christ and prepare you for what’s ahead. He is the source of our peace. —CHERI

Thank you, blessed Controller of all things, that I don’t have to try to control and fix everything but can entrust myself to you, who alone knows the way that I go. Bring my soul into peace and rest as I trust in you.

Trust God where you cannot trace him. Do not try to penetrate the cloud he brings over you; rather look to the bow that is on it. The mystery is God’s; the promise is yours. —JOHN R. MACDUFF (1818–1895), SCOTTISH MINISTER AND DEVOTIONAL WRITER