We know now that God shut the lions' mouth, but Daniel didn't know in advance that it would happen. He was simply a godly man who counted the cost and made a commitment to his God. Meshach, Shedrack and Abednego never knew the fire would not consume them. They put their complete trust in God and made a commitment to God by their declaration of faith. To follow Jesus means to discover what you were born to be, make the commitment, pay the price required, and spend the rest of your life pursuing it to the point of excellence.

The first step to making the commitment is for you to catch a glimpse of "the high calling" of God for your life. Refuse to live a non-committed life. By that I mean don't just be one who goes to church and is not making a mark for God. You were not called to be ordinary. Daniel was not ordinary, the three Hebrew boys were not ordinary, Abraham was not ordinary, and Paul was not ordinary. The list is endless!

Sure you will make mistakes. That's a given! When you are knocked down, fall on your back, for if you can look up, with God's help you can get up. Winston Churchill said, "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." Think about that! Remarkable Christians in the past and even today are the ones who do what the rest of us talk about, but never get around to doing. They are the ones who made a commitment and went for it. God doesn't measure you by others; He measures you by what you could have done if you'd made the commitment and paid the price. Ask Him today for the strength and the willingness to make that commitment.