Jesus called anyone who wants to be his disciple to give up their live which means surrendering your mind, will, and emotions to him.

"Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.'"
Matthew 16:24-25

Today we are going to stay in the book of Daniel and specifically look at how we can learn from Daniel and his friends about how we can intentionally build healthy guardrails as people of faith that can help keep us on the right path for the long term just like Daniel walked out over decades. As we bow our knee to Jesus and make him Lord, he begins a refining process in us of using conviction and care to mold us into who he wants us to be.

“Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us[c] from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.’”

Daniel 3:16-18

We often feel we have one of two options when looking at the pressure of living in a secular culture: We can either separate or assimilate. The book of Daniel shows us there is a third option: We don’t have to separate or assimilate, but we can redemptively participate in the cultural moment we find ourselves in. God has called us to radically integrate into our culture in order to accomplish His redemptive purpose on the earth. Daniel shows us in order to do that we must be consecrated people, set apart and obedient to the Lord, all the while being totally present to our current cultural moment.

“Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. The king said to Daniel, ‘Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.’”
Daniel 2:46-47(NIV)

“Modern man, however, seeks to be ‘true to himself.’ Rather than conform thoughts, feelings, and actions to objective reality, man’s inner life itself becomes the source of truth. The modern self finds himself in the midst of what Robert Bellah has described as a culture of “expressive individualism”—where each of us seeks to give expression to our individual inner lives rather than seeing ourselves as embedded in communities and bound by natural and supernatural laws. Authenticity to inner feelings, rather than adherence to transcendent truths, becomes the norm. This modern self, then, is not accountable to the theologians who preach on how to conform oneself to God but to the therapists who counsel how to be true to oneself.”
Carl Trueman - Strange New World