Have you ever been in a situation where your faith and trust in God was questioned? If you ask anyone who has been on the Christian journey for a while, chances are they will tell you they have faced that question more than once. The fact that they are still here, still walking with Him, tells you what their answer was.

I learned to answer this question as a teenager, not long after I gave my life to Christ. I was born again at a time when that was strange, even to people who had a claim to Christianity because they regularly went to church. There were also seasons when I went through severe hardship, and people around me offered ways out that were not godly. I refused, because I had put my trust in Jesus. Some saw that as a lack of ambition and I lost what I had thought were valuable friendships because I chose to go God's way instead. Not everyone asked the question out loud, but their actions were asking it all the same: "Who is your God?"

When King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah, he carried many of the people into exile. Among them were young men from the royal family and the nobility, taken to serve in the king's palace. They were trained in the language and customs of the Babylonians and given new names. In other words, they were stripped of their identity and shaped to serve at the pleasure of the king of Babylon. But as events would unfold, there was one thing that couldn't be taken from them: their faith in God.

In Daniel 3, we read that Nebuchadnezzar decided to erect a giant statue of himself and ordered all the nobles and officials to attend its dedication. Verses 4–6 record the command:

"Then the herald loudly proclaimed, 'This is what you are commanded to do, O peoples, nations and men of every language: As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.'" (NIV)

Everything went according to plan until certain officials, driven, it seems, by jealousy over the high positions Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego held, reported to the king that these men had neither attended nor worshipped the idol as commanded. As expected, the king was furious and ordered them summoned. What I find interesting in that text, is that instead of carrying out the execution immediately, he gave them another chance. 

Pride may well have been part of it. If they obeyed, his authority would be cemented before everyone gathered and no one would dare disobey him. He had also invested in these men, training them personally in the customs of Babylon. The last thing he wanted was to be seen making a mistake; that would look like poor judgment on his part.

So the king repeats his command, and follows it with a threat and a daring question: "What god will be able to rescue you from my hand?" Nebuchadnezzar's understanding of a god was limited to the one he had built a temple for. That question reveals how little respect he actually had even for his own god. He was daring any god to rescue Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the price of disobedience.

Notice, too, what Scripture says about his reaction when the men refused to bow. Verse 19 reads, "Nebuchadnezzar was so furious with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face became distorted with rage" (NLT). I learned that in the Aramaic, the phrase literally translates as "the image of his face was altered." There's an irony in that worth sitting with: the image of his face was altered the moment these men refused to bow to the image he had erected.

The question of which god could rescue them was answered when the one true God showed up Himself, identifying, in fact, a fourth man in the fire (Daniel 3:25). Nebuchadnezzar ended up praising God and decreeing that no one should speak against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Who, or what, is questioning your God today? I want to assure you that the God who rescued Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is still alive. If you are walking through fire right now, He is with you. If you are deep in the waters of life, He is there to keep you from drowning. God showed up for His people: Daniel, Esther, Ruth, Gideon. Each of them experienced His divine intervention. 

Unlike Nebuchadnezzar's god, our God does not do our bidding. He wants us to trust Him, just as these three Hebrew men did. Notice they didn't pray and ask God to save them. Instead, they boldly declared, "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king" (v. 17). 

And they were ready for whatever came, even if He didn't deliver them from the fire.

That is absolute trust. And that is how we answer the question: Who is your God?