Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What dominates our imaginations, and our thoughts will determine our lives.”

What dominates your imagination and thoughts?

We know what we’d like to have dominate our imagination and thoughts, but that isn’t always the case.

The reality is, the things that we think about, the feelings we have, those become our idols, and they drive our lives.

Ultimately, they become what we worship.

But how do you know what that is?

Here are a few questions:

• What do you worry about? What do you daydream about? These are important things to you; they aren’t necessarily bad things. It could be money, your kids, career, health, a vacation, dream home.
• What do you use to comfort yourself when life gets tough, or things don’t go your way? It could be food, drugs, alcohol, work, working out, sex, even pushing past the threshold of what is healthy.
• What, if I lost would make me think life wasn’t worth living? Like the first one, there’s a good chance this isn’t a bad thing. In fact, this could be a devastating thought, but again, this is getting to the heart of what matters the most to you.
• What makes you feel the most self-worth? What do you lead with in a conversation? Early on, what do you want to make sure people know about you? These all go together, but they get to the heart of who you are and the story you tell yourself and the story you want others to know about you. You might want people to know what you do for a job, how awesome you are, how much hurt you’ve experienced in life. You might want people to know that you are needed, and you want to be needed by them.
• What is your hope for the future? What will complete you? This is the question of, if you accomplish this, get this, what would make you think, “this is the good life, I have arrived.”

Why ask these questions? They get to the heart of what we worship.

Worship is our response to what we value most.

That’s what Daniel 3 and the focus of the book of Daniel.

What we value and what we worship because they are the same thing and then determine what our lives become.

In the book of Daniel, the word king and kingdom is used over 150 times.

When we think of kings, we think of Europe or a movie or show we’ve seen; we don’t often think of our lives or our hearts.

But all of us have a king of our lives, a king of our hearts.

That is about worship.

How do you find out what you worship?

The easiest way, besides the questions above, is to look at your life when it is hard or painful.

In Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzar builds a statue and demands that everyone bow down and worship it when they hear the music. But, 3 of the king’s wise men: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refuse. They are willing to be killed to stick to their beliefs, values, and worship.

Most of us won’t face a life and death situation when it comes to worship, but what this passage shows us is the stakes of worship.

When we put our kids above Jesus, we don’t think of it as a sin or a bad thing, we think of it as parenting. This priority can have disastrous implications for us, our kids and one day our grandkids.

When we prioritize our job and career over relationships (or things that will last) and our relationship with Jesus, we will say things like, “I’m just trying to provide for my family” which sounds noble, but it also feeds a desire and idol that we have.

Once the king sees that they won’t worship his statue, he throws them into the fiery furnace.

What is incredible is before this moment, when the king confronts them, they reply “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Here’s the thing about worship, values, and idols. They are all to provide us with deliverance. They provide us with hope, life, vision, joy, and happiness. If they don’t offer that, they at least promise that. That’s why we purchase anything, work like we do and stress our kids out by signing them up for every activity under the sun.

For these three men, they knew what would deliver them and trust in that God.