Heart Tracks - Even If.....

"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, 'O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if He doesn't, Your Majesty can be sure that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up." Daniel 3:16-18..."If faith is to remain faith there must always be both two clauses to it: 'God is able' and 'but even if He does not.' " Mark Buchanan

I'm not sure if there has been any more erroneous teaching of spiritual things than there has been concerning faith. Whether the teaching has been based upon good and pure motives or not, many have found their faith lives shipwrecked as a result. The error, at root, seems to be as to just who and what is the source of our faith? In the midst of our impossible situations, we are exhorted to "just have faith," in the face of life threatening disease, broken marriages, prodigal children, and a plethora of completely overwhelming scenarios. The message, whether hidden or open, is that if we believe hard enough, petition God intensely and often enough, He will do what we ask. In the process, we have to renounce any and all doubt, or, as one person said to me, "We give God an out," meaning He isn't required to answer. What we miss in this is that we put all the responsibility upon ourselves. We've got to do everything right, make no omissions in the process. All the emphasis is upon us, what we must do, in order to get God to do what we want Him to do. In short, we put our faith in our faith. If we have enough, we'll have the results we desire. Somehow, we miss the Biblical command to "Have faith in God." We're subtly deceived. We've made an idol, a god, out of faith. To what degree have we done this? To what degree do we do so now?

Have you ever meditated upon just what it means to have faith in God? If we allow His Holy Spirit to guide our thinking in that, I believe we'll come upon the heart attitude of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They had complete faith in the power and ability of God, but more than that, they were surrendered totally to Him as well. They did not want to die in the furnace of fire, but more, they were determined to trust their God if He, for reasons He would not share, allowed them to perish. They had already determined that He was good, and that they would trust Him, whether He acted in the manner they wished or not. This is faith. It is not a steadfast trust in the results we seek, but a steadfast unmmovable trust in the God of all things. True faith allows, accepts the "even if He does not." Not in an attitude of defeat, but one of victory. An attitude of the heart that declares that He is sovereign, that He reigns, and He is trusted with a greater purpose than we know, and that He is good, regardless of whether our outcome is or not.

We like to make the exclamation that "God is good all the time, and all the time God is good." Do we really believe that? Do we really believe that God is good when our lives are not? That He is good even when He doesn't heal that loved one, or allows a beloved child to die, or a spouse to leave, a job to be lost, or no job to be found? Coming to that place is a journey of maturity in Christ. Christ Himself asked that the "cup" He'd been given to drink, His crucifixion, might be removed, but more than that desire was His desire for the fullness of His Father's will to be done. Such must be our faith as well. We must have a faith that trusts, believes, and obeys, "even when He doesn't" respond to even our deepest desires. We can have that faith because like the three in the furnace, like our Lord Jesus in Gethsemane, and like numberless others before us, "We know Whom we have believed, and we are persuaded He is able to keep all that we've committed unto Him until that day." And beyond that day. Are you and I among them? Will we trust, believe, and obey Him. Even if, in our deepest askings, He doesn't? We can if we truly believe that He does "work all things together for good." Do you believe that.....even if right now, little if anything might be "good" for you?

Blessings,
Pastor O