But if not...

In the third chapter of Daniel, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar erects a golden idol and demands everyone to bow down and worship it. Three Jews (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) refuse, drawing the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar, who threatens to throw them into a fiery furnace.

The response of the three Jews is one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible (Daniel 3:17-18, KJV),

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.

The three words "but if not," which I place in bold font, have earned a certain mystique thanks to their potential role in the World War II battle of Dunkirk. But in terms of pure theology, those three words are powerful. The three Jews recognize that God was under no obligation to save them from destruction, but they were under an obligation to obey God.

It's tempting to view prayer as a method to get stuff from God, and certainly some prayers take the form of requests. But prayer is more than the process of making requests. It's deeper purpose involves conforming our will to God's through a life of spiritual obedience. Facing near-certain destruction Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego understood that. Let us try to emulate their example.