Even if...Faith

I'm a lamenter. When things don't go my way I often cry out, "Why?" I wonder what I've done wrong, what I could have done better or different. I wonder why it's me or if it's me. me. me. me.

Yeah, that's the problem...me.

Now it's also true that I don't cry out to God anymore and blame him. I even wrote about it a few days ago in my "Mad at God" post. But there's another issue here that I see in the Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego story.

They never got mad at God, at least in the book of Daniel we do not get that sense at all. They were simply faithful. Nothing would shake their faith even when someone rocked their world. Do you remember the story (if you are reading with me you will read it today!)? S,M&A were told to bow down to the golden statue when the band started to rock out. But they didn't. King Neb called them in and gave them another chance, explained his decree, but they refused. You might remember the rest of the story, the fiery furnace, the burned up guards, the fourth person walking around in the furnace who looked like a god! They were rescued from this event by their God, by their faith. They proved nothing was impossible with God.

But it was their response that I want to learn how to live, that we all need to learn...

"Your threat means nothing to us. if you throw us in the fire, the God we serve can rescue us from your roaring furnace and anything else you might cook up O king. But even if he doesn't, it wouldn't make a bit of difference, O king. We still wouldn't serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up." Daniel 3:16-18, Msg

It's their, "even if," that reveals the depth of their faith. It's the even if that makes all the difference. It's the even if that we need to learn, to pray, to cry out.

This is one of the main themes in the film Facing the Giants. If we win, we praise him, if we lose we praise him. God can do all things and we will praise him in whatever God chooses to do, whatever circumstances come our way when we remain faithful to the cause. It's the life and football philosophy of the coach and eventually the team. They learned the even if!

Crying out in lament, "why me?" is not the same as the prayer, "even if..." The first is about me, the second is about God. And if our focus remains on the self, we miss the goodness and movement of God. My journey has been and will continue to be to move past my selfishness and to trust in God in everything.

It didn't happen overnight for me. In fact, I'm not done yet. I'm still learning the even if prayer. And so can you.

God, we want trust you more than we do. We rather spend time looking out for number 1. Yet when we do, it leads to despair rather than hope and faith. Help us trust in you even if things don't work out the way we pray for them. Help us to praise you when things turn out worse than we expect. You love us even if we are disobedient. We will promise to love and serve you even if things don't go our way. We want to live an even if faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Peace ><>
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