Daily Manna · Day 185 · July 4
But If Not
“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”
You have prayed the bold prayer and meant every word. God can heal this. God can restore this. And underneath it runs a second question you have never put into words: what happens to my faith if he does not?
Notice what the three men in front of the furnace do not say. They do not say God will certainly rescue us. They say two things and then a third that prevents the first two from being read as confidence about the outcome. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us. He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. Then: But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
But if not. Everything hangs on that hinge, and it is worth being exact about what it concedes. Not that God might be unable; they have just said he is able. Not even that he might fail to get them out of the king's hand, since dying is one way of leaving Nebuchadnezzar's reach permanently. What it concedes is that they do not know which, and that the obedience was settled before the answer came. That is the only point at which such a decision can honestly be made. Afterward it is not obedience, it is a verdict on God's performance.
So the invitation stands and nobody will check whether you accepted it. Say both halves about the thing you are praying for. He is able, and he may. Then, if you are willing, say the harder half and name what you will still do if the answer is no. A faith with that second sentence in it is not a smaller faith. It is the only kind that survives an answer you did not want.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 185 is Our Own Souls (1 Thessalonians 2:8).