But If Not…
Our God is able to deliver us…But if not…
Daniel 3:17, 18
The Hebrew children did not doubt that God could save them from the furnace, but if He did not they would be faithful, anyway. It is well to be prepared for the “if nots.” God is always able, but sometimes it is not His will to deliver us from the fiery furnace. But He will save us in the furnace. He does not always spare us trouble, but He does succour us in trouble.
If you are facing a furnace, make provision for the “if not.” If you are not healed, if the dear one is taken, if that friend fails you, be faithful, anyway. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” If things do not turn out the way you had hoped and prayed they would, do not bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s image of doubt or fear or discouragement. That is what the devil wants, as when he put Job in his furnace.
“God can do it, but if He doesn’t, He is still my God. I will bow to no idol.”…Blessed are the saints of the If Nots!