But If Not

I try to teach what I believe the Word of God has revealed to us in the Scriptures.  I can honestly say I have never intentionally tried to mislead anyone into error who reads my essays about the intent and heart of God.

Since I am capable of being wrong and making mistakes, anything I write without Scripture to back it up, should be looked at as only my personal opinion.  Usually I try to tell you when my belief is just that ... my opinion ... formed through my understanding of the whole counsel of God's Word.

What I want to address today ... hopefully ... will not be opinion, but rather the time tested truth found throughout the entire Word of God.  In the past I have shared many times about unanswered prayer.  No one can say truthfully, that God answers every prayer, every time, in every situation the way we want.

We expect an answer every time, so we pray believing He will take care of our problems and needs ... health, safety, wisdom, protection, etc.  We trust God.  That's why we call ourselves ... believers.  We believe, even if many times our faith is no larger than the grain of the mustard seed that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 17:20.

Which leads me to The Book of Daniel, Chapter 3:1-18 and the problem Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had after they were captured by Nebuchadnezzar and shipped to Babylon.  As the story goes, these three young men would not bow down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar had made ... even with the threat of being thrown into the fiery furnace for failure to do so.

Considering and knowing what was ahead of them if they refused to bow to this golden image, these three Hebrews stood strong in their resolve to only bow to Jehovah, the one and only true God.

Some have supposed that the forty foot high statue was an image of Nebuchadnezzar himself, since he thought of himself in his own narcissistic mind as a god.  He knew of the Hebrew God Jehovah that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego worshiped, but when he was told they refused to obey his command, he had them brought before him to hear their reason for himself.

Almost as if he couldn't believe anyone would refuse his command, he said to them ... "Is it true, that you do not serve or worship the golden image which I have set up?"

Reminding them again, he said ... "If you do not bow and worship, you will be cast into the furnace" ... and thinking of himself as invincible he says to them, "Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?"
 
All three answer him ... "If it be so, (meaning, you may cast us into the furnace, but hear O King) our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fire, (either to prevent their being cast into it or to bring them safely out of it) and He will deliver us out of thy hand."

Many believers today might say that the next three words out of their mouths just destroyed their confession of faith in God when they said ...

"But if not."

Oh no, that sounds like doubt.  We must not say anything negative or God won't answer.

No, what they were saying was ... "But if not, (if God should not deliver us) be it known unto you O King, we will not serve thy gods."

Yes, while it is always true that God has the power to deliver us from harm of any kind, can anyone say with absolute certainty that He will?  You might believe that He will ... but past history is filled with the bodies of other believers who also thought so and woke up in Heaven.

I have no problem with ... "But if not."

What's my reason for such thinking?  Because I have found that it's not so much what I say or don't say that counts, but rather ... what's in my heart and soul ... knowing that I don't control what happens.  God does.  He gives or withholds as He pleases.

I talk to God about a lot of things.  I only receive what He wants me to experience.

Perhaps the most important truth I have learned in this life I have been handed is this ...

"There is a God, and I'm not Him." 

"But if not" ... I'm still okay with it, because His eye is never off of me, therefore His care never falters.



Comments are welcome.