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<\/a><\/figure>\nIf God doesn\u2019t come through the way we want, will we still say, \u201cAnd if not, He is still good?\u201d <\/p>\n
Each of us will encounter trials that stretch our faith and circumstances where we desperately need God to act on our behalf. We know God can do it. But will He?<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re new here, my own plans went up in flames when I went to bed happily married and woke up a widow and single mom to our seven children.<\/a> My kids were four, six, eleven, fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, and nineteen years old at the time. When I woke to Dan\u2019s heavy breathing, I started CPR, called 9-1-1, and prayed my guts out for God to have mercy on us.<\/p>\n I believed God could keep Dan alive. God could in fact have kept Dan alive or kept us from this suffering altogether. And yet, God did not answer my prayer the way I wanted.<\/p>\n The collision between what we want God to do and what he does when it looks different, can bring us to a crisis of faith. We\u2019re forced to face all the ways we\u2019ve made God our good luck charm or genie in the bottle, here to do our bidding according to the life we\u2019ve ordered. <\/p>\n I wouldn\u2019t have said I\u2019d made that idol in my heart. I\u2019d just misaligned my faith a tad. But small misalignments create big idols and when life fell apart, mine was revealed in all its oxidized indignity.<\/p>\n Standing in that fragile place where we\u2019re utterly dependent on God, can we say, and if not, you are still good?<\/p>\n Last weekend, I led a women\u2019s retreat from the account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3.<\/a> What did they know about God that we need to know when we\u2019re facing our own fiery flames?<\/p>\n First, God is able.<\/strong>\u00a0God\u2019s ability to rescue wasn\u2019t a question for these three men: \u201c[O]ur God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.\u201d (Daniel 3:17, ESV)<\/a> Nothing is impossible for God.<\/a> God split the Red Sea, destroyed Jericho\u2019s walls, fed thousands from one boy\u2019s lunch, and raised Jesus from the dead. He is all powerful.<\/p>\n Second, God is sovereign.<\/strong>\u00a0God not only has all power but controls all power. That means the government isn\u2019t in control. Our boss isn\u2019t in control. The doctors and medicines and cancer are not ultimately in control. Everything seen and unseen is under the hand of God. <\/p>\n But that begs this thorny issue: God could answer our prayer the way we want, but he may choose not to.<\/p>\n The gap between what God can do and what God will do is the place for our surrender.<\/strong><\/p>\n God doesn\u2019t ask from us what he hasn\u2019t already done. Jesus faced his own \u201ceven if not\u201d moment before going to the cross.<\/p>\n Three times, Jesus got facedown before his Father and begged him to take away the cup of suffering. Each time, Jesus acknowledged God\u2019s power while surrendering to his sovereignty. In Mark 14:36<\/a>, Jesus prayed, \u201cAbba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.\u201d<\/p>\n