{"id":83849,"date":"2025-01-30T14:57:38","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T20:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=83849"},"modified":"2025-01-30T14:57:38","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T20:57:38","slug":"so-certain-in-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/so-certain-in-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"So Certain in Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n<p>Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, &#8220;<em>O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up<\/em>&#8221; (Daniel 3_. Such a certainty echoes from their hearts of faith, making us examine our own level of conviction.<\/p>\n<p>Here is determined faith: conviction so deep and real that nothing and no one can have power over it. That is the kind of faith we need. That is the conviction that says, &#8220;Nebuchadnezzar can control a lot of things, but he does not own me or my faith in God.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>They were three young men, but what about the rest of the Israelites? Faith in <b>God <\/b>was not so important. Do we fit more with the one who bowed to the image, or does our faith shine like theirs?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We saw this faith in young David when no other man would bring God into their hearts and face the Philistine Giant. Only young David had faith so strong.<\/li>\n<li>Stephen, the first Christian martyr for Jesus&#8217;s cause, was strongly convinced (Acts 7).<\/li>\n<li>The apostles all stood before the Jewish rulers and were willing to be beaten for Jesus (Acts 5). They thought it was a high honor to suffer shame for His name. They were so certain in their faith.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Paul, in prison in Rome, says, &#8220;<em>To live is Christ, and to die is gain<\/em>&#8221; (Philippians 1).<\/p>\n<p>Our faith has a rich resource, a treasure that knows who is most important to us. Are we utilizing this same resource that they utilized? Because Paul wrote down in a few words the rich treasure of testimony (Ephesians 3:3-5), we can know what he knew and develop the same deeply convicted faith in Jesus. Therefore, we do not lose heart (Ephesians 3:17-19). We can be certain in our faith (Luke 1:1-4). We can trust God with our challenges and know that we are &#8220;<em>more than conquerors<\/em>&#8221; through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. We have the same resources to develop a rich and certain faith! Let&#8217;s keep our focus on Jesus and the prize set before us!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Terry Wane Benton Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, &#8220;O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[250,49],"class_list":["post-83849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-confidence","tag-faith"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48658,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/faith-illustrated\/","url_meta":{"origin":83849,"position":0},"title":"Faith Illustrated","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The great stories of the Bible never grow old \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We tend to idealize the characters and forget that these are ordinary people, like you and I \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0People whose faith was tested and many triumphed over sin \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After discussing many people who illustrated faith, the writer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Audio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50718,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-it-mean-to-confess-christ-before-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":83849,"position":1},"title":"What does it mean to confess Christ before men?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hey Jeffrey, I hope all is well with you. Thank you for always answering my questions with sound Bible doctrine. It has helped me a lot. I have a question about confessing Jesus before men. I was reading Matthew 10:32-33 and I would like to know exactly what Jesus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50872,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/faith-is-the-evidence\/","url_meta":{"origin":83849,"position":2},"title":"Faith is the Evidence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by\u00a0Doy Moyer \"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen\" (Hebrews 11:1, NASB). Some translations say that faith is the \"evidence\" of things not seen (KJV, NKJV). What does this mean? We often point out that faith is not blind. Because of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34917,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-faith-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":83849,"position":3},"title":"What Faith Is","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 2, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Faith is the demonstration of our conviction that we trust the reality of what we cannot see. That is not the same as saying there is no evidence. Trusting the reality of what we cannot see means only that our faith is not dependent on first-hand material\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67902,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/real-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":83849,"position":4},"title":"Real Faith","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Biblical faith is not mere belief. It is trust, but it is more than that. It is conviction, loyalty, faithfulness, allegiance, and commitment. To say that we ought to trust God and have faith is not to say that we sit back and do nothing. That is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13400,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-correct-way-to-ask-god-for-help-is-if-you-are-willing\/","url_meta":{"origin":83849,"position":5},"title":"Is the correct way to ask God for help is &#8220;if you are willing?&#8221;","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was reading the Bible the other day. I forget which verse but I read something like 'Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean' That verse made me wonder. Is that a correct way to ask God for something is to ask if He is willing,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}