Many of us read the story of Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego(Daniel 3) and are fascinated by the God who delivered them from the fire and the passion for God that led them to refuse to bow down to the erected god of the time. We say in our hearts, surely we would also not bow down to any god if they were to erect one in our time,we would also rather die.
Little do we know that the gods of our times have not necessarily been erected as statues like the one of the late Nelson Mandela at the Union Buildings. The erected gods of our time are any flawed norms or laws, written or unwritten that govern the daily lives of people and have consequences if not followed. Example; it is said that if you do not pay a bribe you will not get a driving license,it doesn’t matter if you can drive or not.. Will you still refuse to bow down to the god of bribery after having falsely failed your license 15 times? Would you rather not have a license (burn in the fire) than bow down? How passionate are you about it?
This world has erected a lot of gods; corruption, homosexuality, fornication, hate speech and filthy language, materialism etc. While most of us are still waiting for a molten image of gold to be raised so we can pull a three Hebrew boys stunt, most of us are unaware that our knees are bowed down to these gods. “Everyone is doing it, even the Christians.” We say,“ Surely God will understand, He sees my heart, they gave me no choice they were going to fire me from my job. ” And then we bow.
How much do you love God?Is it enough to face any fire this world brings as a consequence of not bowing down to the norms? Are we willing to say even if God doesn’t deliver me from this fire (I never get my license) I will never bow down to this god(pay the bribe)?
Tshidi Tseke 
This is really powerful and eye opening. May God bless you.
This is a difficult subject I must admit