But If Not . . .

This post is a hard one.

As I write this, my sister is undergoing surgery to restore circulation to her foot through an arterial bypass in her leg. The surgery is serious and dangerous, given that she has other health problems, including heart failure. What is especially concerning at this moment is that the first attempt at the bypass seemed to go well, then quickly failed and needs to be redone. So . . . right now she is in the followup surgery.

We are praying for her to come through the surgery, and for the bypass to work well; she already lost her other leg a couple years ago due to similar circulation problems, and having to lose this one would be devastating.

We are praying for successful surgery and healing for two reasons: first, because she needs the healing, and second, because we believe God can and many times does heal, often in answer to prayer. So the prayers are going out to our church’s prayer chain, and to family members and friends.

But what if she doesn’t heal? We were thanking God when she came out of her first surgery, when everything seemed to go smoothly and the bypass was working. But why then the complication? Does it mean that God doesn’t love her? Does it mean she didn’t deserve the surgery to go well, either due to some flaw or sin or lack of good works on her part? Does it mean she didn’t have enough faith? Does it mean that we are not praying hard enough in the right way? No, none of these reasons is valid.

So why then, does my sister have these critical health problems? The answer is: we don’t know. Sure, there are medical reasons that we can point to, but they just push the same question back further: why did she have those medical issues in the first place? Why does one person get cancer and others do not? Why does someone get diabetes and other do not? Why ALS, why Altzheimer’s, why leukemia, etc.? Why do high school kids get shot during classes in one town, or on the streets of another town? We don’t know why any particular person gets sick or hurt or killed, other than to point to the fact that ALL of us are mortal and have bodies that one day will give out, no matter how healthy we may be right now.

Another question we could – and should – ask is, why does God heal anyone? Why does God protect us from harm and preserve our life as much as he does? And why does God promise us eternal life in resurrected bodies that will never again become ill or be injured or die (Revelation 21:4 and 1 Corinthians 15:42-57)? God didn’t have to create us in the first place (Genesis 1:26-27), nor sustain our lives each moment we live (Colossians 1:15-17), nor make a way for us to have eternal life (John 3:16). But he did! And why did he do that? For that question, we have an answer: God created, sustains, and will raise us imperishable because he loves us.

So how do we respond to the possibility that God doesn’t answer our prayers for healing or protection? Do we get angry at God and turn away from him? Do we doubt his love or his power? As God asked Moses when that leader doubted God’s ability to provide for all the Israelites, “Is the LORD’s arm too short?” What do we do?

God’s Word provides us a lesson for such times, which I presented in the book I am writing about miracles. Let me share with you the following excerpt from the chapter titled, “But If Not.”

Three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, stood before the mighty king of Babylon, knowing that their lives could well depend on their next words. Although they held favored positions in the kingdom, that would not save them from King Nebuchadnezzar’s wrath, for they had flouted his authority by refusing to obey his command. And kings do not like to be flouted.

To most people in the Kingdom of Babylon, the king’s edict was harmless enough: whenever anyone heard musical instruments being played, he or she was to fall down and worship a huge golden statue that the king had set up. But to faithful Jews such as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, worshiping a graven image was forbidden by God, and therefore they had not obeyed. Now hauled before the king and given the choice between bowing down and being thrown into a fiery furnace, the three men gave their answer: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Daniel 3:16-18, emphasis mine).

But if not. Note carefully what they said: they knew that God was fully able to save them from the furnace, but even if he did not, they would still hold true to their faith and obey God. Their faith and trust in God was not dependent on his miraculous intervention to rescue them; they trusted in him no matter what would happen to them.

I want to emphasize one point to you in the strongest terms. I praise God in gratitude for his amazing blessings. I honor him as he deserves and I am extremely thankful for every special thing he has done, but  . . . my faith in God and in his Christ does not depend on the personal helps he has given me.

My faith in God and in his Christ does not depend on the personal helps he has given me.

I believe in God and in his Son, Jesus Christ, because I trust what the Bible says. If God helps me with a problem, protects me from danger, heals me or someone I love from illness or injury, or provides my material needs, then well and good, and I am thankful; but if not, I will still believe and trust in him. Should everything suddenly go badly in my life, I will not stop believing in my Savior.

Likewise, although God has given me signs of his presence and power at many critical points in my life, I do not depend on those signs to trust God or to discern God’s will for my life. God did not need to give me any signs to validate what he promised in Scripture, even though he sometimes did so to help me when my faith was weak, or in response to my prayers. But whether he gave them or not was his decision.

God is God. I will praise him and pray to him, whatever comes for my sister – or for me or for anyone else. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Daniel 3

(Update: the second surgery seems not to be working either; she is now in the ICU post-op waiting to see what develops. Please pray for her.)