These were real men and women just like you and I. They had families and friends they loved like you and I. Their bodies felt pain just like ours do. They preferred peace and calm to affliction of mind and body just as much as you and I do.

Yet, when faced with the option of either being tortured or of being tempted with a great deliverance and reward if only they would simply say, "I no longer trust the Lord Jesus Christ" these real men and women said to their captors, "I will not deny my Lord."

The encouragement we draw from them--the reason we are told about these saints--is so that in them we might behold that our God is our great strength--no matter how severe the trial. The believer's strength is Christ in us. The Lord of salvation is faith's power to continue believing him.

That is why true faith is always bettered for having passed through the fiery trial. Trials merely remove the dross that hinders us from looking to Christ our Strength.

When thru fiery trials thy pathway shall lie
My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply
The flame shall not hurt thee
I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine