[Devotional] IN HIS PRESENCE: Don’t get scared by your experiences

By Oke Chinye

Read: Daniel 3:8-30

Meditation verse:

“And the satraps, administrators, governors, and the king’s counsellors gathered, and they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them (Daniel 3:27)

To be scarred means to be deeply affected or marked by mental or physical pain or injury. Scars hardly fade away. They remain visible for a long period of time or forever. In the book of Daniel chapter 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had just passed through a horrible experience. They had been bound and thrown into a fiery furnace heated seven times more because they refused to bow to king Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image. But they came out unhurt and untainted by their experience. The bible states that they did not even smell of smoke; meaning there was nothing on them that showed what they had just gone through. Scorned, betrayed, thrown into a pit, and eventually sold into slavery by his own blood, Joseph had every reason to be scarred. He was accused of rape and thrown into prison. He was forgotten in prison by someone he had helped. He could have turned into an angry and vengeful person. But when he found himself in a position of authority, he refused to let his past define him, he said “you meant evil against me, but God turned it around for good” (Genesis 50:20).

Irrespective of what your experiences were this year, don’t get scarred by them. Your past does not define you; it prepares you for your future. Do you know why the front windscreen of your car is bigger than the rear-view mirror? It is because what is ahead of you is more important that what is behind. Quit reliving the pains of yesterday. Look ahead and get set to move on to what God has in store for you.

This is God’s promise to you as the year rolls to an end. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). Your light affliction which is but for a moment, is working for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. May you finish this year strong.

IN HIS PRESENCE is written by Dcns Oke Chinye, Founder of The Rock Teaching Ministry (TRTM).

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