Even If

Heart Prep

Lord, please comfort my heart today and give me peace in knowing that when it seems
as if my prayers are not being answered, I can still trust You. You are a good God
and You are powerful enough to answer all my requests if you so choose.  
But EVEN IF you don't... I choose to trust You and Your love for me.

Daniel 3:16-18  “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to
deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.  
But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going
to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Mia ran upstairs to her room straight from school. Her mom found her a few minutes later in her bed, crying. “Honey, what’s wrong?“ she asked, knowing that something must have really discouraged her “normally cheerful” daughter. “I really want to trust God, Mom! I really do! But how can I when He never answers my prayers? Even for things that are good and wholesome.” Mia’s mom knew the effort that her daughter had put forth this year to pray faithfully. First, there was a friend of hers at church who had a rare kind of cancer. Everyone had prayed that she would be healed, especially Mia; but it had not ended well, and Mia was disheartened.  She had been trying to have faith. Now, Mia sat up on her bed and told her mom about not making the basketball team. She had been praying for an open door so she could reach out to some girls in her school, and being on the basketball team would have been the perfect way. Her mom thought for a minute, and then replied, “Remember the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? If they wouldn’t follow the king’s orders to worship his idol he would have them killed. They knew in their hearts that their God was powerful enough to save them, yet they said that even in the face of death, that EVEN IF God didn’t save them, their position was still the same. Now, that is an amazing kind of faith! Believing that God can answer all our prayers, but resolving in our hearts that, even if our prayers aren’t answered the way we would like, we will still trust in God. God loves you, Mia, and you can trust that His ways are good, even through all of the ‘Even If’s’ of life!“

Life Application

How about you? Are you struggling to keep your faith through what seems like unanswered prayers?

How can you learn from the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?

Will you trust the Lord, even if . . .?