"We Have His Word"

"The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace earth, purified seven times." (Psalms 12:6) You have most likely heard it said, My word is as good as gold. A statement that should mean that you can count on their word as something worth taking to the bank. When it comes to God's word, His word is "pure", as in clean and free of pollution. If you think about what free of pollution means, it means free of anything which might take away from the glory and majesty of His word, or cloud the meaning of what He says. To put this into a word picture, we could imagine how this could relate to the light pollution and it's effects on the sky at night. Quite simply; the further we can get away from man made light, such as the lights of the city, the more glorious the night sky becomes. When we have a personal relationship with God, His word becomes purer to our heart; although, His word never really changes, yet filtered through the mouths of men, it can become polluted just as the night sky becomes when filtered through the lights of the city. The majesty of the sky has never changed, it just becomes harder to see the splendor of it through all the man made light. Therefore; if we are in doubt of His word, it is not due to anything lacking in His word, but rather, because we have so much junk in the way, to be able to believe Him at His word. Man made junk: this is the stuff that hinders us from trusting God with all of our hearts; things like questioning God's ability and power, or trusting Him to have our best interest in mind; and most of all, believing that He loves us and cares for us individually, as His children. We have gathered this junk over the years by putting our trust in man; being let down continually, we assume that words really don't mean much. But God is faithful at His word, and is to be trusted that He means what He says and says what He means. As silver that is refined in a fire, His word is tested and has been tried of the Saints of old. Much like Daniel, who knew very well that God was more than able to deliver him; therefore, his desire to continue and serve God, far exceeded the threat of being fed to the lions. As a matter of fact, Daniel used the trap that was set for him, as a way to test God, and to prove that God was faithful. This is expressed in Daniel's answer to King Darius from inside the lion's den, as he answered, "O king, live for ever. My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions mouths, that they have not hurt me; forasmuch as before Him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt." (Daniel 6:21 & 22) This is also a great illustration of how trust must include action, being that the action of Daniel praying to God would place him in the lion's den; but he trusted that God would deliver him, if not from the lion's den, then from the lions..."Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God." (Daniel 6:23)