Reading for today
Old Testament: Daniel 3, 4, 5, 6
Thoughts from today’s reading
Daniel 3. In a lot of the cultures in the ancient times, rulers were deified and the people were made to worship them as if they were God. This statue that was set up is believed to have been the image of king Nebuchadnezzar. The same way we are to play music and worship God, as revealed in Psalm 150, is the same way that the people were required to worship the gold image. Most people will strongly oppose worshipping the devil, however, they practice the worship of men. This worship includes bowing to others for what they can give, or even bowing to self for what we have achieved.
All worship, for anything and everything belongs to God only, not to the devil, not to powerful rulers, not to celebrities, not to benefactors, not to ourselves. We must resist the pressure to bow to anything that wants to take the place of God in our lives.
Prayer
1. Heavenly Father, we acknowledge you as the great and mighty God, the one who is Lord in heaven, on earth and under the earth. You are Lord of yesterday, today and all eternity. No one can be compared to you and there is no god that can exist beside you. At the mention of your name, every knee bows and all tongues confess, you are Lord. We thank you our God and we commit our hearts to worship you and you alone.
Wherever we have been tempted, lured or threatened to worship something other than God, Father we lift this situation up to you and declare our trust in you to deliver us out of the furnace of men. Thank you for grace to withstand societal pressure, family pressure, peer pressure and personal vices which seek to make us bow and worship false gods. You are the deliverer and we give you every praise that through us, your name will be glorified and those who persecute us will change their minds and join us to worship the living God.