Herod killed James with the sword and then arrested Peter. Passover week, sixteen soldiers, one fisherman. The early church had just buried one of its pillars and was about to lose another. Where was God? Why didn’t He stop it?

Pain, loss, and tragedy come for all of us: the diagnosis, the phone call, the divorce papers, the prodigal, the anxiety that won’t lift. In those moments, the enemy doesn’t usually get us to stop believing in God. He gets us to believe in a smaller one. Pain tries to domesticate our faith and shrink it down to something safe that can’t be disappointed again.

In this message from Acts 12 and Daniel 3, Pastor Justin unpacks the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and what it looks like to have a complete faith:

🔥 God is ABLE. Pain keeps us trapped in doubt.

🔥 He WILL do it. Pain keeps us in fear of disappointment.

🔥 But EVEN IF He doesn’t.

Pain makes our faith only as deep as the outcome we desire. There’s no formula that keeps us from pain. When we look for one, we end up trying to USE God instead of TRUST God.

How much pain you go through doesn’t measure His love for you. His love was proven on the cross. Herod got the sword, but God got the last word. You can trust a future you can’t know to a God you do know.

📖 Scriptures: Acts 12:1–5, 21–24 · John 16:33 · Daniel 3:15–18