Loyalty

My Tuesday night Bible study group has started a study on the book of Daniel. It's a Beth Moore study, and if you are at all familiar with her, you know she's big on studying the original Hebrew and Greek origins of our English scripture.

Tonight's passage was on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The Bible says they showed "loyalty" to God and did not bow down to the King's golden statue. We looked at the Hebrew origin of that word, loyalty, and at what some of its other shades of meaning are. One of them that really stuck out was "to be prepared." To be loyal is to be prepared. Shadrach, Meshach and Adebnego were loyal to God because they were prepared to be. They decided long before that statue was ever built that "yes, we're captives, and yes, King Nebuchadnezzar is the boss of us, but we will not bow to the gods of this land." They were prepared not to bow down before they were ever asked to bow down.

I don't think I'll ever be in a situation where I'm asked to literally bow to someone else's golden idol, but should I be prepared for such an event? I don't think I'll ever be asked to renounce Christ or die, but should I spend any time preparing for such a decision? Should I decide before I have to decide?

I wonder how many past failings I might have avoided if I had simply decided before I had to decide...