“He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” (Daniel 3:25)
The only thing that will enable us to emerge from a fiery furnace unscathed, and even the better for it, is our decision to glorify Christ through it. Without Him, we bear the unsightly disfigurements of anger and bitterness. A desire for “payback” is the telltale indication that our heart has refused the healing ministry of the Savior.
This is a day where people are being trained in being thin-skinned. They are on the lookout for the “microaggressions” of others. A generation has been brought up in the school of outrage. They “watch for iniquity” and will “make a man an offender for a word.” (Isa. 29:20,21) Their indignation at every perceived mistreatment has them ready for revenge.
Should those who follow the slain Lamb also fall into the category of “hurt people hurt”? Not if they have counted all things loss to know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings and are willing to be made conformable to His death. Even when we have suffered great and true injustice, instead of “jumping on the bandwagon” of the outraged, we must identify with Christ “who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously” (1 Peter 2:23)
Our Master bore our sins in His own body while remaining the sinless, spotless, harmless Lamb of God. He was tempted in all points like we are yet without sin. He has not told us to bear any fiery furnace that He Himself has not first entered into.
Hurt people hurt. Unhurt people don’t hurt. Fellowship with the Son of God in every fiery furnace, come out of it “having no hurt.”