Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, "If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us! But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue that you set up.” Dn 3: 17-18
Almost everyday in the newspapers or on the internet we hear about people praying for miracles. Diagnosed with an inoperable cancer or struggling with a failing heart or kidneys, the sick or the families of the sick send out urgent requests for prayers. For many this is a natural response. Not knowing how to help themselves or cure friends and family, they return to a kind of faith that is desperate and anxious, and they ask, and sometimes demand, that God perform a miracle.
Testing God like this is fruitless. God loves us unconditionally and will forever walk with and accompany us, but it is not always in God's plan to radically enter human history with a healing hand. That God can do this is clear, but it happens rarely, and while we might pray for this kind of help because of our fears or guilt about the past, we should not depend on it.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego witness to the kind of faith we ought always to pray for. Assuring King Nebuchadnezzar that their faith is stronger than he can fathom, they tell the King their trust in God is such that even if they must die, they will not abandon their God for a golden statue. The God they worship has accompanied the Jews through every trial and proved trustworthy. They have no need of another God, even one that promises miracles.
Today, pray for the grace to live with a faith that demands nothing from God but his presence.
What kind of faith do you have? Has it sustained you through life's trials?
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