Posts Tagged ‘walking on coals’

I Will Walk Through the Fire If You Want Me To (REALLY?)

If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. Daniel 3: 17

I have a brother-in-law who tells us he has actually walked on hot coals and says it was an exhilarating experience like none other. What I wonder is… why? What would make a person choose to walk on hot coals? Life is hard enough on its own, so why test the limits?

However, it’s a different story when the limits come to test you.

This week my limits have been tested with my first round of chemo. It wasn’t exhilarating, to say the least. It was in fact one of the worst things I’ve ever been through. Today marks the sixth day and I am just now for the first time able to have a coherent thought, much less put one on paper. I can’t believe I have to go through two more treatments like the one I just experienced, two more weeks of nausea and anxiety. Not to mention that radiation, a whole new treatment that will begin on Monday. With radiation will come the introduction of pain along with the
side effects of the chemo.

Several times this week I have thought, there is no way I can continue and I’ve consoled myself with thoughts of just taking my chances and quitting the treatments. Surely this can’t be good for me.

Then I remember one of my favorite songs by Christian artist Ginny Owens, “If You Want Me To”, which is about walking through trials that bring us closer to God and I remember that my trial has a purpose. But why cancer…where the treatment seems to be much worse than the disease?

Chorus from ‘If You Want Me To’ by Ginny Owens:

Cause I’m not who I was When I took my first step

And I’m clinging to the promise You’re not through with me yet

so if all of these trials bring me closer to you

Then I will walk through the fire

If You want me to

The purpose in my trial is to bring me closer to Him. But, I ask… was I not close enough?

Yes it sounds grand to say, “I’ll walk through the fire if you want me to”, but to really mean it is yet an entirely different thing. Fire hurts! Only the truly brave can say it and mean it.

When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were faced with being thrown into the fiery furnace they noted that there was only one thing that could save them, God. Their fiery trial produced the truth in all of our trials – God alone can save us. This truth is all I can cling to.

I guess then, getting closer to God is getting to the point where you know, that you know, that you know, that God is all there is. Only He can comfort me from my fears. He is the only thing I need to get through this.Thankfully, He’s not through with me yet….

To get there is my goal – to know that my God is all I need, nothing more and nothing less. So with fear and trepidation I choose to say; “I will walk through this fire if He wants me to”.

Sheree

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