Hold On To God’s Word – Part 2

I don’t know about you but last week’s article by Tania spoke to me. The words from Luke 1:37 that she has read hundreds of times before ‘jumped out and hit me in the face’: ‘FOR NO WORD FROM GOD WILL EVER FAIL’ (emphasis hers). These were the words spoken by the angel, Gabriel, to Mary after she was told she would conceive Jesus by the Holy Spirit.

Tania’s reflection was if we have received a promise from God, hold on to it rather than let our hearts become disillusioned and embittered when circumstances say that God has reneged. I hadn’t planned on it but as I was pondering over what to write this week, I felt to continue from where she left off, hence the title of the article, “Hold on to God’s Word – part 2”. I’m going to come at it from a slightly different angle.

In Daniel 3, we have three young men who disobeyed a command by king Nebuchadnezzar to worship a stunning golden statue (it is irrelevant whether the statue was a god or of the king himself) measuring 27 meters high and 2.7 meters wide. Their disobedience is rooted in God’s word. They would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for some astrologers who ratted them out to the king (verses 8-12).

The king was furious with rage that they would dare challenge his authority but for inexplicable reason, he afforded them another opportunity to do the ‘right’ thing and threatened them with the most painful death if they still refused. Here is what they respectfully and humbly said to Nebuchadnezzar (verses 16-18): 

“…King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver usfrom Your Majesty’s hand. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

Here they are standing on God’s word that He can protect them but even if He didn’t, they were still going to obey God. Let me put it in another way. When God doesn’t fulfill His promise to you in the way you think or expect, it is not that God has failed you. He is working out His purpose in another way. In Isaiah 46:9-11, God says,

For I am God, and there is no other, I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed and I will do it.

Hang on to God and His word! Always!

Mark