Daniel 3:16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
I urge each of you reading this to stop at this time and read Daniel 3 in its entirety. There are some overlapping principles and situations that we see occurring in today’s society. Many of you know this historical moment, but to those that do not here is a break down. Nebuchadnezzar made a decree (mandate, if you will) that everyone should bow to his statue. Once the mandate was made then people started watching to see if these three guys would not bow and sure enough they did not. Once this information was brought to the King then they were asked if this was true. Verse 16 was their response.
The three Hebrew boys used some interesting wording in their response. They said “we are not care to answer.” In other words, we are not “worried,” “anxious,” or “fearful” to respond to this mandate. They were not worried or fearful to respond in regard to their obedience to God. They stood for what they believed. They served the Lord. They loved the Lord, and they knew one of two things would happen: God would show himself mighty, or they would die believing in something that meant something to them.
As we move into the future, we can see a very liberal and anti-Christian movement happening in our country. First, are you too scared to stand for what you believe? Second, are you ready to stand for what you believe? Would we allow fear and anxiety to change our response when the heat gets turned up on our faith? We have to remember our walk with God before the fire has a great impact on our response for God in the fire.