What is the identifier?

Today I was reading the story in Daniel about King Nebuchadnezzar and Shaddrach, Meshach and Abednego. It always moves me and encourages me.

Nebuchadnezzar has a 90 foot gold statue of himself built and erected and required everyone to bow down in worship of him when they hear the music.

However, some of the fake religious men, the astrologers, went to Nebuchadnezzar and tattled on the Jews like little children in grade school and the king was furious. He went into a rage and required Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to be thrown into the firery furnace. Then he was so mad he told his servants to make the furnace hotter by seven times its normal heat. They bound the young Jewish boys and threw them into the fire. The servants that threw them in the furnace bound with ropes died from getting to close to the heat.

When Nebuchadnezzar looked at them in the furnace, expecting them to be immediately annihilated, he saw four people and he stated excitedly… there is a fourth one and he looks like the son of a god. Obviously we believe that Jesus entered the situation and protected the boys from the immense fire.

When the young lads were ordered out, there was not even the hint of smoke on them.

However, what Nebuchadnezzar said when they got out was worth remembering and taking to heart.

“Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! He sent his angel to rescue his servants who trusted in him. They defied the king’s command and were willing to die rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.” ‭Daniel‬ ‭3:28‬ ‭NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

My question to my self was, “Am I willing to die rather than serve or worship any other god but the One True God?”

It is a question we all may be called upon to answer in our lifetime. Do we have the courage to do so? Are we willing to go that far? To die rather than serve another so-called god?

‬‬Many have had to answer that question in recent years. Persecution all around the world. But, we Americans have not faced such frightening encounters.

Are we too weak? Do we worship other so-called gods but have not identified them yet? Perhaps we have the courage, no matter what the circumstance! That would be good.

However, do we have other gods we give our time to? Maybe we haven’t identified them as gods in our life.

How would one identify a false god? Let’s take a look at Colossians 3:5 from the Greek text translation in The Pure Word: “Therefore, you must mortify your members which are upon the earth: fornication, moral impurity, evil affections, evil desires, evil work, and greediness which is idolatry.”

Originally I have looked at one of these as being idolatry and that is “greed” but could all of these have been classified as idolatry? Look through the list and see if any apply to you.

I think that any sin could be classified as idolatry because it is the opposite of worshiping God. So, each of us could have several idols.

How could one assess what an idol is? It is anything we prioritize over God in our life. That becomes sin and that is idolatry. That does not mean that because we work 8 hours a day we have an idol. No! You work because God instructed us to work and make a living for our families. The key is, are we working as unto God in our occupation?

To keep idols out of our lives, we must keep Christ as the Center. He should be the air we breathe, the love we have, the reason we do what we do. He should be the reason we live and have our being. It means that our hope is always in Jesus and His promise of returning to take us home to be with Him forever is our greatest sustainer while trudging though life’s somewhat difficult journey. It means He is why we do what we do! In everything! Not just some things.

What are our choices based on? Do we feel we need to ask God for our decision making?

I fear that most of us just rush through life, grabbing all of it that we can handle without much thought about Jesus. That’s easy to do. Probably the best indicator we can use to identify that Christ is at the center is this: Prayer. Our prayer life tells us much about how little we depend upon God and whether He is the center of our life or that He is not. I must confess that I stand lacking through that identifier. I find it easy to just glide through life without thinking about how much I need to pray about various needs.

Prayer takes sacrifice. Sacrificing our time to come to our Father and knowing we must depend on Him in all we do takes effort. However, prayer will give you courage to stand with your feet planted firmly on The Solid Rock, Christ Jesus. Your weaknesses will begin to vanish as you become stronger and you will become courageous for and with your God. As Ephesians 6:13 says, “and having done all, to stand.” KJV and 6:18 says, “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” NLT

May God help each of us to do that.

Ken Lewis ThD