[Darris McNeely] You've ever been bound up with a problem? I mean really bound up, you know, like a rope or chain around you. You know we have a fear, we have a doubt, we have insecurity and we get, kind of, frozen, immobilized, bound up with ropes of doubt and sometimes even sin. All of us are prey to that. Inadvertently, we take it upon ourselves or somebody else, kind of, wraps us up with a rope and we just can't move. We can't get things done, can't function. There's a story out of the Bible, Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego thrown in the fiery furnace. We've talked about it in a few recent BT Dailies. You know, there's an interesting point we just tend to gloss over there. They were bound up when they were thrown into the fiery furnace after they had under their famous statement that, they were not going to bow down. They said, "God can deliver us, oh king, but if not, we're still not going to bow down to your idol."

The men bound them up, threw them in, the king looked over after a while and there they were walking around and a fourth person was in there. Interesting, they had been bound up it says in verse 23, when they were thrown into the midst of the burning fiery furnace, but then they were loosed and they were walking around and they were brought up out of that. The fire burned off the ropes. Obviously is what happened didn't hurt them and their clothing but it burned off the ropes.

I think there's a great lesson there for us to think about. We don't like trials, we don't like fiery trials. But, the Bible tells us that that's part of our life that is part of this Christian walk, we will have difficulties, challenges, trials. Sometimes they'll be really fiery, very difficult. Serious illness, the death of a mate, a friend, a family member, loss of a job, some other trial will come upon us and wrap this up with doubt, fear, insecurity. Sometimes we will slip and we will sin. And again that sin will wrap us up, bind us down spiritually, emotionally, morally.

When we go through trials, walking with God, He's always there. That's the point that we take away from the story. We sometimes have to have go through a fiery trial as we walk with God, just like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had to go through a fiery trial. God was with them, He delivered them. But there was a time of fear and trepidation. They rode all of that with their confidence. Pray that you have that confidence, that courage, that commitment, that faith to override the fiery trials that come upon us and recognize that sometimes, we will have to go through those trials in order to burn off the ropes of doubt, fear, insecurity and even sin that bind us and keep us down.

That's BT Daily, join us next time.