Daniel 3:16-18  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. ¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT…  These three young men were facing a horrible death for failure to bow to an idol.  They were confident that God would rescue them but their faith wasn’t dependent upon Him doing it.  They were going to remain true to Him even if He didn’t.  They are in my Hall of Fame for demonstrating how to respond when the going gets tough and threatens to get even worse.  Their confidence and proclamation to the king were rooted in God’s greatness!  No matter what happened, they were going to be true to their God.

While we might not be facing death, many of us are facing all kinds of difficult situations today: loss of job, loss of income, overwhelming bills, uncertainty of the future, threatened layoffs, illness, inability to financially help friends or ministries in need – the list goes on. How are we responding?  Are we caught up in the trauma of our need?  Or, are we focused on the greatness of our God?

In Habakkuk 3:17-19 the prophet describes barren farms.  But even though the farms have no figs, no grapes, no olives, no food, no sheep and no cattle – the response is “YET I will rejoice in the LORD.  I will be joyful in God my Savior.  The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.”

Let us apply Habakkuk and the example of these three young men to our situations.  Fill in the blanks with whatever difficulties you, your family and friends or co-workers might be facing:  “The God we serve is able to deliver us from __________, and he will deliver us from __________ – But even if He doesn’t…..  I will rejoice.  I will be joyful in God my Savior.  He is my strength.  He enables me to walk in precarious places.”

This isn’t just good theology – this is what Jesus enables our bedrock reality with Him to be. He wants us to have such a relationship with Him that this will just flow out of it.  If this doesn’t describe where you are, seek Him and He will enable you to get there.  Let us remember, Job faced untold calamity but he didn’t sin by charging God with wrongdoing, nor did he sin in what he said.  He responded with worship and praise. (Job 1:22 & 2:10b).