“The smell of smoke was not on them.” Daniel 3:27 NKJV
“Rejoice in trouble rather than resent it; you’ll make people curious and the devil frustrated.”
My thoughts today are about “after effects.”
Relationships, actions, circumstances, and experiences are not over when they’re over. There are always lingering after effects to be dealt with. People deal with hurtful things that happened in childhood, or are still defensive over a friendship that didn’t end well, or struggle with words and hurts in a marriage and family. Years later, some still struggle with stuff and people long since gone from their life. The after effects of some experiences endure long after the circumstance itself is past. Good experiences can have pleasant and beneficial after effects. Less pleasant experiences can leave a painful residue of hurt feelings and emotional memories.
God is always found in the middle of your answer. A prideful and rage-filled king, Nebuchadnezzar, ordered three Hebrews bound and forcibly thrown into a terrible inferno for disobeying his command to bow down and worship a grand, golden image of himself. Read Daniel 3:1-23 NLT. Then the strangest thing happened. Instead of being destroyed, they were seen in the midst of the fire still hale and hearty – “unbound, walking around in the fire.” (vs. 24-26).
Writing of this story, someone observed, “Whatever bound them when they went into the fire wasn’t binding them when they came out!” Good for them; disconcerting for Nebuchadnezzar! Something miraculous was happening right before the eyes of the King. God would not permit the fire to touch anything on or about them, except the restraints others had imposed. The after effect of their experience was liberating, not debilitating. See Ephesians 6:16 NKJV. Often people are as bound after the fire as they were during the fire – delivered from the ordeal, but damaged somehow.
Commanding them to come out of the fire, the witnesses to this inexplicable scene observed, “The fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke!” Smoke can leave a lingering, even permanent smell, only if you allow it. I admire several dear friends who have gone through unimaginable health challenges for too long, but still express a Godly testimony of the grace and faithfulness of God. I honor them and would hope that could be said of me in such a circumstance. Their lives and conversation do not “smell of smoke.”
Life can be tough and people unkind. Let the ordeal, whatever its nature or origin, change you for good not for harm – a reason to be better, not bitter. Trouble and mistreatment are very real and felt deep within one’s soul. God’s counsel is this, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you; but rejoice . . that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.” 1 Peter 4:12-13 NKJV. Rejoice in trouble rather than resent it; you’ll make people curious and the devil frustrated. See Ephesians 6:16 NKJV. Seeing your Godly response, they may say as Nebuchadnezzar, “Praise be to God . . there is no other God who can rescue like this!” Daniel 3:29 NLT.
Here’s your Godly goal: “Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us manifests the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ . . the aroma of life leading to life.” 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 NKJV. See also Romans 8:18 NKJV.
My prayer for you today is: let others notice the fragrance of His grace, not the odor of your ordeal.