IF NOT

The usual Sunday routine around this house is that Wolter or I pick up 2 Cracker Barrel Home Style Chicken meals and bring them home. Mom and Dad split one and we split the other. Thanks to the generosity of friends on Mom and Dad’s 61^st Wedding Anniversary we still have gift cards to the Taj Mahal of the South – Cracker Barrel.

This past Sunday our discussion over lunch was about the three Israelite men who did not bow down to the image of Nebuchadnezzar. We spoke about the verse where they young men tell the king, “our God is able to deliver us, but if he does not we will still serve him.” Mom stopped us and said, “I once had a message about that verse entitled ‘IF not’”

This picture is a couple of years old. Mom & Dad

She went on to explain that God is able to do all things, but if he does not, will we still serve him? The world is littered with disillusioned former Christians who bailed on God when he did not meet their expectation. Mom’s message is that we must determine to offer a sacrifice of praise to God all the time. “In all things give thanks.” It is in the fire we are tested, it is in the fire that the bonds are burned off, and it is the fire that the Son of God is revealed.

She’s pretty much lived by this verse most of her life. She’s prayed for many circumstances to change, but God did not change the circumstances instead he changed her, and gave her the strength to face her circumstances. She’s prayed for healing and as of yet she has not received her complete healing. However, she has a better quality of life than most who have suffered from the crippling Arthritis that has been her companion for more than thirty years. Many requests God has either answered “no” or “not yet.” But her faith has not wavered.

Whatever God has not done the fact remains that he has fulfilled one all-important promise. He provided a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. “God reconciled the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.” The hands Mother lifts in prayer may show the effects of Rheumatoid Arthritis, but she begins each prayer with the words, “Lord, I thank you for the cross of Jesus Christ.” She understands that it is there where she received her greatest healing.  

Will we determine to handle the “if nots?” No matter what he does or does not do, we will serve him. We will not bow down to the systems of this world. We will enter his gates with thanksgiving in our hearts and we will enter his courts with praise.

Hebrews 11 speaks of the heroes of faith, known and unknown and towards the chapter’s end are these words, ‘All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.’

Like most, this household has a grab bag filled with prayer requests, God has answered some and some have not yet been answered. But through every trial we are determined to serve Him. He is trustworthy and He is our anchor. If He doesn’t deliver us from it He will deliver us through it.