This devotion was recently shared with our incoming 2020 summer staff team by Kardia, our Director of Programs.
There’s a part of me that is incredibly excited for everything the summer holds—getting to train and lead and work with all of you—our amazing team of summer staff. Getting to join Jesus on His mission and share His love with people who desperately need it.
But I know the challenges will be very real. And the days will be long. And that I will be asked to step into uncomfortable moments, and to do hard things.
And so the doubts creep in. And the fear. And the uncertainty.
There’s a saying that goes, “Real gold fears no fire.” It means that the challenges and trials we go through reveal the truth of what is there, beneath the surface.
This is your warning label for the summer: Following Jesus means stepping into the fire.
In the book of Daniel, the king of Babylon—the largest empire in the world at that time—builds a massive golden statue and commands everyone to bow down and worship it. A couple of young Hebrew guys refuse. They get called out by some jealous court officials and are hauled before the furious king to explain their behavior. The king gives them a choice: worship the golden statue or be cast into a burning furnace to die. He reminds them of the power he holds over them. In his arrogance, he assumes they won’t dare disobey.
And so Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are faced with a choice: give into the fear that their circumstances surround them with, or hold onto their faith in the one true God they serve.
In one of the most epic moments in the entire Bible, they declare to the king:
“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 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)
But if not.
Real gold fears no fire. Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego make no excuses for God. Either He will deliver them from certain death or He will not. But they never doubt His power and they remain faithful to His call upon their lives because their trust in Him remains unshaken.
This summer, we’re asking you to live into the but if not. Our theme this year at Camp Luther is Press On. We’re going to be talking about what it means to press on towards Jesus amidst the challenges and difficulties that life so often brings our way. Following Jesus is never easy. But it is so, so worth it.
This summer will stretch you in ways you’ve never experienced before. It will bring you to the end of yourself. It will open your eyes both to your own inner frailties and failures and also to the unimaginable faithfulness of the God you serve. And it’s my deepest prayer that, more than anything, God will use this summer to form you into the kind of person who fears no fire—who presses on after Jesus, trusting that He is with you every step of the way.
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“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
1 Peter 1:3-7