"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."
Daniel 3:16-18
What struck me today about these verses is the idea of being careful to answer (or not). That phrasing makes me think of someone tiptoeing around an issue as a kind of deception... careful to say only true things, but not in a way that will trigger the person they are talking to, or leaving out that part. And so maybe when our three heroes talk to the king, that is what they are saying... basically, "we are going to tell you plainly, without any shading of meaning."
I also love how they state that God is able, they believe that he will, but that even if not, they are still going to follow him. I think that we can learn a lot from that about how we exercise our faith as well, not only when facing opposition, but even when we pray. We know God has the power to deliver us, and we believe that he will deliver us, but even if he has a plan that requires us to not be delivered from this, we will still trust and obey him, because we know that even if he doesn't deliver us immediately, as we trust him and stay the course, his plan will always save us eventually. The happy ending might take 3 or 4 more chapters and some interesting plot twists, but it is always there waiting for us.
Today, let's be faithful and bold as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were, and let's trust in God's deliverance, whether we have to be patient a little longer or not.
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