09/15/2025
So encouraging!
Do Not Bow
Tess Rider
Daniel 3:17-18, 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.
My oldest daughter, Sofia, was first diagnosed with brain cancer in 2014 at 18 months old. She relapsed in 2016, and again in 2018, just before she turned 6.
At her final diagnosis, she was a patient at St. Jude, and it was considered a terminal diagnosis. We were sent home with the option to do nothing or to pursue experimental medication trials to try and get a few extra weeks, possibly a month, with her.
I will make a very long story short and say she is now 13, doing incredible, and has been cancer free since July 2018!
Her cancer never returned and we witnessed a literal miracle! We are so thankful!
When we were still trying to buy just a little more time with her, Sofia had to be taken off her immunotherapy, because the experimental trial she was on was closing. This meant that the drug we were relying on to keep her aggressive cancer at bay would no longer be available to us.
I clung to the well-known declaration by Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel chapter 3: Our God IS able to deliver us from the fiery furnace, BUT IF NOT, we will not serve your gods or bow down and worship your idol.
I wrote this, about those verses, during that time without chemo, “Whether it's the idol of fear, or doubt, or unbelief, or the idol medication, or anything I would rely on more than God. It really doesn't matter to me. Even if the fire is right in front of me, I will not bow.”
What we didn't know then was that just a few months later this would enable us to stop traveling 1,500 miles every 28 days to pick up this experimental medication, and completely change our lives for the better.
Only God can do that.
Whatever is in front of you right now my friend, I KNOW our Lord is able to deliver you … BUT IF NOT, do not bow. He will be there in the fire with you.
Whether it's the idol of fear, or doubt, or unbelief, or the idol medication, or anything I would rely on more than God. It really doesn't matter to me. Even if the fire is right in front of me, I will not bow.
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I have been married to Scott for 15 years, we have 5 kids, and I have loved serving at our church, Cornerstone, in various ministries over the last 20 years. I love naps, reading and eating.
