Monday Camp Devotion

Here's today's devotion we'll be reading at church camp:

"What kind of person will you be?"
by Jared Altic

Imagine living in a time and place where no one did what what was right and almost everyone you knew did not believe in God. What kind of person would you be?

When Ezekiel was captured and taken to Babylon, he found himself surrounded by people who didn't believe in the one true God. The Jewish people were mostly unbelieving–this is why God allowed them to be captured–and the Babylonians believed in a large number of false gods. The godlessness of Babylonian society must have made it very difficult to be a good, honest person, faithful to the one true God. Ezekiel's friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were put in a particularly difficult spot.

Read Daniel 3:1-12

The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzer, built a statue to be worshipped. But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were part of the group of officials present that day, knew that worshipping a false idol is a terrible sin. To refuse to worship the statue meant being thrown into a hot furnace used for melting metal. What would they do?

Read Daniel 3:13-30

The three young men chose to risk death, rather than sin against God. No one was there to support them or encourage them and the other people must have thought they were insane to throw their lives away! Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego believed God would rescue them, but they were also confident that they were doing the right thing, even if God did not rescue them (re-read verse 18). They were alone in what they believed but they were firm in their convictions.

Take this time to pray about the decisions you make. What does the world want you to do? What does God want for you? Pray that God will give you courage to stand for him even if you stand alone.