First, there were the three young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, whose response to a persecuting king was, as they were about to be thrown into a fiery furnace heated seven times its usual capacity:
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace...
And then the three words:
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve they gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up (Daniel 3:17-18).
But if not... There will be times in each of our lives when our faith must not be conditioned upon God's rescuing or relieving us, because in fact, He may not - at least, not as we would choose to be rescued.
Not My Will, but Thine by Neal A. Maxwell. 2008. Deseret Book. p. 129
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