While working as a full-time EMT, I was asked by my lieutenant if I would be interested in going to fire school. My goal was not to become a firefighter but to become dual certified, which would be a great opportunity in the future. I decided to take the class and challenge myself.
I found out quickly that attending fire school in May in Florida was not a good idea. After I finished each challenge and obstacle that fire school threw at me, I finally made it to the final test. This test allowed the students to use everything we had learned up to that point in a real fire. As my group of three entered the “final burn,” we stayed low and worked together to put out the fire. This final test was a very hot, difficult challenge. Our lieutenant was not far away, and he continued to stay close to help guide us through with verbal reminders to work together and to stay down. It was comforting to know that we were in this together and that our lieutenant was right there with us. After completing this “final burn,” we found out that the fire had reached slightly more than 1,000 degrees. This was an exciting and sobering thought for me. That day, I was thankful to have completed the challenge I faced and to have made it out of that final test.
This fire helped me to recall a Bible story that I heard as a little girl in Sunday school. Daniel 3 tells the story of the three Hebrew men who took a stand for right and truth. King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold and told all the people to bow down. The three Hebrew men worshipped the one true God and refused to bow down to this image. Because of this, the king said that if they did not bow, they would be thrown into the fiery furnace. Verses 17-18 say, 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. The king was angered at this. Verse 19 says, …and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated. The king commanded his men to throw the Hebrew men into the fiery furnace. The fire was so hot that the king’s men who threw in the Hebrew men were overcome and died. The Bible says in verse 25, 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.
In our Christian lives, we will face testing and trials. As the men stood that day in the fiery furnace, they had the Son of God with them. We do not need to go through the fire alone. If we are saved, we have Jesus to go through our time of testing with us. When there is something difficult that we face, we never need to face it alone. We never need to wonder if He is going to be there.
The fire of life is sometimes hot and even uncomfortable. There will be times when we are tempted and tried, but Jesus will stand with us in the fire if we stand for truth and right. He is going to get us through our “fiery furnace.” If we remain faithful, we will be able to step out of that furnace of life one day as a testimony of God’s faithfulness to stand by us in the hottest and most uncomfortable trials of life.
by Mandy Harper