Daniel 3:17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O King. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O King, that we will not serve your gods, or worship the  image of gold you have set up.

BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT... WHAT AN EXPRESSION OF FAITH…

I do not worship my God because of what he does for me. I worship him because of who he is to me. I love him when things go my way; I love him when things do not go my way. Perhaps I should say, I love him more when things do not go my way, because that is when I need to love him the most. It is easy to love and worship Jesus when the outcome is good. That devotion is most needed, and I believe most pure, when I look to him in his absence, and I listen for him in his silence. I am one who admits easily that I rarely sense his presence. I never hear his voice. I feed off faith; that is, that deep gut-settling conviction that he is there even when he doesn’t seem there. He loves me even when I don’t feel that love.

I have had enough hard things happen in my life that had it not been for my faith in him, my deep unwavering trust that he is there, I would have collapsed. If my faith depended on evidence of his presence (or that he shows up every time I look for him) I would be walking in and out of Christianity. It would be fickle and frustrating faith. To think that he trusts me enough to place me some distance from his presence and asks me to love and worship him there, has an exciting edge to it. Like Daniel’s three friends, circumstances and outcomes will not deter my trust in his goodness. After all, faith by definition is to be sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Heb.11:1).