Did you know that God desires for you to be triumphant today?
Well He does! He has provided a way for you to ALWAYS be victorious – not so, you say. Yes way! And when we do triumph and give Him the glory, it’s like the smell of a sweet perfume. So when folks ask “What’s that smell (i.e. how did you come out that victorious), we can say, “Oh, it was God helping me, taking me through, making me victorious.”
In the book of Daniel we read of 3 young men who refused to compromise their stand for God. The king had ordered everyone in the realm to bow before his statue and worship him. Take a knee! But these three, even though they were in the king’s employ, refused.
The king’s anger was out-of-control. He demanded their worship and their allegiance. Again they refused even though death was to be their most certain consequence. The king ordered the refining fires to be heated to the greatest possible intensity, seven times hotter than it had ever been. And when the three publically stood in opposition to the king he had them bound and thrown into the fire.
“So the soldiers tied up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and threw them into the flaming furnace with all of their clothes still on, including their turbans. The fire was so hot that flames leaped out and killed the soldiers.
24 Suddenly the king jumped up and shouted, “Weren’t only three men tied up and thrown into the fire?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” the people answered.
25 “But I see four men walking around in the fire,” the king replied. “None of them is tied up or harmed, and the fourth one looks like a god.”[a]
26 Nebuchadnezzar went closer to the flaming furnace and said to the three young men, “You servants of the Most High God, come out at once!”
They came out, 27 and the king’s high officials, governors, and advisors all crowded around them. The men were not burned, their hair wasn’t scorched, and their clothes didn’t even smell like smoke. 28 King Nebuchadnezzar said:
Praise their God for sending an angel to rescue his servants! They trusted their God and refused to obey my commands. Yes, they chose to die rather than to worship or serve any god except their own.” Daniel 3:21-28 CEV
When we serve the King of Kings we aren’t promised a perfect life but we are promised a protected life. These men came out of a life threatening situation and they didn’t even smell like smoke. What obstacle do you face that could be any greater than this? God is the same now as He was then.
Here’s to victory today – Always! ” Now thanks be to God, who always leads us to triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” II Corinthians 2:14