Daniel 3:66-68. These are the ending verses of the praise Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael give to the Lord while being saved in the fiery furnace. These three, along with Daniel, were raised up in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon during the exile. But when they did not follow the king's decree to fall down and worship his golden idol whenever the music calling for that worship went out, some Babylonians turned them in. Nebuchadnezzar called them to him in fury and demanded that they worship his idol or he would throw them into the fiery furnace. They said we have no need to answer you, we will not worship your idol, and our God has the power to save us from the fire, but even if he chooses not to we will not worship your idol. So they were thrown into the furnace and the flames were fed to such a degree that men around the furnace were consumed by them, but an angel came to these three and protected them from the flames. They walked around in the furnace, in the midst of the fire, singing praises to God, and ending with these verses. "Bless the Lord... sing praises to him... forever; for he has rescued us from Hades... from the midst of the fire he has delivered us. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy indoors forever..."

I think this is a further lesson on trust for me today. I have spent a lot of time and effort over the last few years trying to learn to be closer to God in prayer, in thought, by really working on forming my conscience, and by learning and practicing discernment. (Saint Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises have been so very helpful to me in this regard!) This effort is ongoing, but is definitely paying dividends. I hear him so clearly sometimes - not always, but on certain things that I am concerned about or questioning or feeling miserable about - when I pray in humility and with the intention of accepting whatever he tells me, I often get an answer - a very clear one. Sometimes, though, the answer is not what I wanted to be, or, even more frequently, it is not what others want me to do or be. This is painful, because it means letting people down or not doing what they think is right, because I have discerned that God wants me to do something else.

This is where faith and trust come in. Having learned this discernment, I must be true to it. God will use my openness to his Word and to his promptings to talk to me, to guide me, but I must trust him in this guidance. Just like Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, the pressure may be very great to comply with the world's wishes, and the threat for failing to comply may be great suffering (or even death!). But if I truly believe I have formed my conscience in such a way that I am following him and what he wants me to do, I have nothing to fear, not even the fiery furnace.

He has the power to protect me from suffering and from death, but even if he does not, all it means is that I go through suffering and death, and so what? We all suffer, and we all die at some point. If I suffer or die because I am true to him, I am promised much greater things!

(Note, for some weird reason, I could not link to just these verses, above, I had to link to all of Daniel 3, so just scroll down to 66-68)