Daniel 3: 17-18 “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
I don’t remember when this story really hit home with me, and I think I may have alluded to it in an earlier post but for the past several years the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego took on a very deep meaning for me. Now, this passage is somewhat familiar – Veggie Tales has done a hilarious rendering of it, and I even had a solo in a children’s production of this fiery story when I was 8. I still remember the words to the “rap” I did (oh yeah, we rapped in church), but I will spare you.
So, what stood out to me was the “even if.”
Here are these three young boys who are facing what humanly speaking would be certain death because they chose to honor God, and they said even if God does not save them, they would worship Him alone. How many of us can say that? How many times have we (and I include myself in this) think “there is no way God would let <insert horrible life situation here> happen”, and yet if we truly believe in His sovreignty then we have to believe that even if the worst case scanario happens, God is still in control.
As I write this is dawns on me that this “even if” idea applies not only to the big things (death of loved one, difficult marriage, wayward child, or heartbreak of infertility to only scratch the surface) but the little things. EVEN IF my children wakes me up every 2 hours during the night for some unknown reason, EVEN IF my children dump their food on the floor and refuse to eat GOD IS STILL GOD and these are just moments I get to practice patience, kindness, goodness, and mostly self-control.
Why did this happen to them? They were honoring God, they were doing the ‘right thing’ in our view of things, yet God was sending them into the fiery furnace. How could he? BECAUSE HE IS GOD, and He can do what He pleases. This is a tough one to swallow. I realize I take a pretty strong stance on the sovreignty of God, and I’m not saying we stand idly by and let deciscions be made for us by inaction because “God is in control and I can’t do a thing about it,” but we can boldly say, even if the worst-case scenario happens God is still in control, and I am going to trust that He is going to bring glory and honor to Himself through all things even if it means not working things out the way I see fit.
My challenge to those reading this is to rethink the way you look at trials both big and small saying, “even if…God will be glorified!”
